JaKelle's Hospital Experience

So it all began about 5 days ago when I noticed her neck was swollen a little bit. She had been teething and fussy with a bit of a fever the past few days and I figured it was because of her teething. When I found the lump in her neck I called the after hours urgent care and went to the the doctor. They said that it was an infection and she needed to go get an ultrasound on it to make sure it wasn't an abscess and didn't have pus in it. She then needed to have a shot of antibiotics and blood work done to see if the infections was viral or bacterial. She was also put on oral antibiotics.

So after doing all that in one night both JaKelle and I was exhausted but glad to find out that the ultrasound showed no pus and that it was bacterial. The antibiotics should work and everything would be fine......well the next two days i noticed that the infection site on her neck was not going down. In fact she was getting more fussy and it was getting more red and swollen. It was on a sunday that i decided that it was getting worse and not better so i decided to call the doctors on Monday. I called them and they said that I needed to see and Ear Nose and Throat specialist. So i called them and they got me in the next day. Poor JaKelle by this time was sick of having this dang thing on her neck that was causing her so much pain. The poor little thing.

She is seriously the best baby i have ever seen. Throughout this whole ordeal she was only a little fussy at times. I had been giving her infant Tylenol which im sure helped a little, but i prolly would have been more cranky if it was on me than she was. She is the most patient content little thing I have ever seen. She is such a sweetheart.

Anywho, so we went to see the ENT the next day, he said it was an abscess and that it needed to be drained. After an abscess has formed antibiotics will do no good. So we had to go into the hospital hours after that and have it cut open and drained.

They put her on antibiotics and kept her over night to monitor her. She looked good the next day and so they showed me how to dress the wound and take care of it and said we could go home. :)

The whole time, all the nurses and doctors kept commenting on what a beautiful little thing she is and how cute and chubby she is too. The nurses and doctors that helped take care of her commented on what a content happy baby she is too. She is such a trooper and such a blessing to our family. I am so blessed to have such a sweet spirit in my life :) I am so thankful that everything went okay. Thank you everyone for your love, support, prayers, and help you have shown us. What i looked like day 2 into this, pretty swollen but not really that red

Day 5 at the hospital before the surgery, very swollen and very red

The abscess. So red and swollen. That poor little thing :(

The cutest little hospital gown i have ever seen :)

The incision to drain the pus from her abscess. The red stuff coming out of the incision is gauze. They packed medicated gauze inside the abscess after they drained it, and kept the wound open to help it heal from the inside out. Each day i have to pull a little bit more of the gauze out. In like 4 days it should be all out and then the doc will suture the wound closed.

JaKelle sleepin after the surgery

A much happier JaKelle