My Poor Connor

On Thursday morning, I woke Connor up and noticed he was developing a rash all around his mouth. He had a skin infection that looked similar last month so I told him to put on some of the creme we had leftover. By lunch time though, the school called and asked me to come pick him up because he wasn't feeling well. When I picked him up, I noticed the redness was getting worse.

Once we got home, he had something to eat and went to bed. When he woke up, it had spread a lot. By the evening, it covered his whole face and beginning to spread to his neck. I was getting worried because last month when Sheldon took him to the doctor, the doctor said if we don't do anything about it, it could turn into a blood infection. I asked Sheldon at 11pm to take him into the hospital so he can get some antibiotics pronto. I didn't want to wait until the morning to take him into the drop-in clinic. When they were seen by the triage nurse, they were told that a doctor wouldn't be able to see Connor until 5am so they simply came home.

Friday morning, we took him to the doctor. It turns out it was impetigo again. It never fully went away and since he had a mild cold, it brought the symptoms back, fiercer than before. This time, she prescribed a different antibiotic and told us to continue with the creme. This time though, we were supposed to put some of the cream up his nostrils too because that's where some of the bacteria may have been hiding from before.

By Saturday, Connor's whole face was red with the infection and all over his neck except for the back of his neck. The poor kid...it was itchy and every time we put the creme on, he said it stung.

This is a picture of what Connor had. It's not actually Connor because Sheldon wouldn't let me take a picture of him. Just another poor kid whose mother did take a picture and posted it on the Internet for all to see. Anyways, imagine the redness from the picture all over his face and neck. The crusty brown parts just stayed around his mouth.That's what he had.

By Sunday, it wasn't getting better at all. When he had it last month, he was getting a lot better by now. I was getting worried so we called a friend over so he and Sheldon can give him a blessing.

On Monday, it started to clear up. By Monday night, his face wasn't red anymore. There was just a lot of dry, flaky skin around his mouth and some of the crustiness left on his lips.

Today, I took him into the doctor so he could say Connor was better and I could send him back to school Wednesday with a doctor's note saying he's not contagious anymore (the school called me and said this was required before he was allowed back). However, the doctor said he couldn't write the note because Connor was still contagious. The impetigo was still on his lips (the crustiness). The doctor suspected Connor would have to be home for the rest of the week.

Connor was not happy to hear that. Much to my surprise, he's sick of being at home, watching TV (there's not a heck of a lot for an 11 year old to watch during the day...plus we don't have cable), and sick of playing video games. That's right. You heard me. He's sick of playing video games! He was upset that he couldn't go back to school.

Anyways, we've solved that problem by taking a trip to the video store so he can rent some new video games and we went to the library so he could borrow the next book in the series he's reading.

Before dinner tonight, Connor washed his mouth with salt water (something you have to do when you have impetigo) and the crustiness came off! So he may not have to wait until Monday to go to school but now that he has something to keep him occupied, he said it's ok to stay home for the rest of the week.

My poor Connor.