Update on CootieGirl

CootieGirl’s cellulitis is doing better today (I’m convinced that’s what she has, which according to various websites that I’ve read, can be started by a bug bite and just never quite go away permanently). Last night I gave her a long hot bath and scrubbed her down good to make sure she was clean. I then cleaned the wound on her butt with Hybiclens which is this high-powered antibacterial solution that Mare-Bear recommended to me. Once cleaned I slapped a couple band-aids on her and called it a night.

This morning upon waking I removed the band-aid and found a small yellow stain on the band-aid, but the would looked okay, but we washed it again with Hybiclens and put on fresh band-aids.

Fortunately, when it comes to medicine we don’t mind when CootieGirl needs it because she happily takes it each and every time. She likes the syringe that we use for CootieBoy because she can push the plunger and let all the medicine go into her mouth at once, or in little bitty steps, like a game. In times past the doctor has told us to give her the medicine for ten days, but this time they said to do it til the bottle runs empty (which will be about 14 days).

I’ve done a lot of research online and can’t help but think she has cellulitis, which (unfortunately) will never go away. But it can be managed, and I’m hoping that I can do a bit more research and be armed with information at CootieGirl’s 4th birthday physical with her pediatrician. Starting with her fourth birthday she is getting annual eye exams and will start going to the dentist. I know she should have been doing those things already, but we just never got around to it. Look, she wouldn’t even sit still to get her HAIR TRIMMED at the hair salon a couple months ago, what makes you think she’ll sit still for a person to begin poking around her mouth with sharp metal objects or putting her head in a contraption and shining bright lights in her eyes? Puh-leeze.

Anyway, I seriously hoping we’re not about to be training CootieGirl to be an obsessive-compulsive about cleanliness with all this stuff going on with her infections, but we’re now going to be hyper-diligent about keeping her clean and dealing with scratches and bites (apparently the cellulitis can be inflamed even if a scratch occurs on another part of the body (thus leading to my thought that this latest bout is due to the scratch she got on her belly at school last week or the knee-scrape at the zoo on Saturday)).

One last thing – all the websites related to boils and cellulitis have said that one possible cause could be diabetes, so I think I’m going to have her tested at her next appointment to see if she might have juvenile diabetes. I’m NOT being one of those moms who is presuming the worst, I’m merely going at it saying, “Better to be on the safe side and rule it out entirely.”