Never a dull moment!!!

May 10, 2012

If I am going to catch you up on what has been happening here at our crazy house, you simply must hear the story of Paul getting a tick.  We had been to the parade and that evening had celebrated my Dad’s birthday over dinner.  The house was finally settling down for the night and Paul asked me to look at the back of his thigh because something was itching him.  It didn’t take long for me to find a pesky little tick burrowing its way into his leg.  Ugh….those things are SO gross!!!  Anyhow, we quickly refreshed our knowledge of removing ticks, and I got down to the business of pulling it out. And of course, you all know what happened next.  True to how things go in our household, the head of that stupid tick did not come out!

For a normal healthy human being, living in a normal household, the fact that the head stayed in his leg really wouldn’t be that much of a concern.  However, because we live with Keyan, who carries several resistant bacteria, we have to be a little more careful.  So, a phone call to the afterhours doctor eventually put me in touch with a infectious disease doctor who told me over the phone that I really needed to get the head out.  So, for the next hour of so, we turned our kitchen into an operating room.

My dad brought in the overly bright work lamp from the barn  and found his (very scratched up) magnifying glass.  I dug through Keyan’s supplies and found lydocaine gel to numb the area, sterile instruments, gloves, and gauze to wipe the area clean.  There are after all, some benefits to having a medically complex child.  We assembled our supplies on the kitchen island and all took turns holding the lamp, taking pictures, and digging at Paul’s leg.  It was quite the scene.  I was determined we were not paying an ER visit copay for this stupid, pesky tick so through laughter and apologies, we kept opening up the skin further and further. Poor Paul.  he was such a great patient.  He had my Dad all up in his business, out of town friends here joining in on our nutty experience, and all he wanted to do was go to bed.

Sadly, in the end, we never did get the whole head of the tick out of Paul’s leg.  We got pieces of it, but it was amazing how deep the thing had gone.  Luckily, with lots of antibiotic cream and persistence in keeping the area clean, Paul was fine and had no complications from the tick that decided to take up residency in his leg.  It just goes to show you that you never know what might be going on in our crazy house.  The best part???  Every single one of the kids slept through the whole insane ordeal!

 

****By the way...Happy Birthday Paul!  I am so glad that I get to share this "once in a lifetime" sort of life with you.