Four times in one week...and help!

So, Bobbi's had this little spot on her right (worse) knee that just wasn't healing up quickly - at the same time I had one on my finger where I nicked it with my fabric rotary cutter one day. Tender, red, slow to heal. Mine finally got past the worst of it, and hers finally this past Sunday was looking better.

Then Monday, BAM. During her PT session, her therapist noted that there was a 3" diameter red circle around the site, and it was hot to the touch. She suggested to Dad (who had come along with Bobbi), and we agreed, that a trip to our clinic was in order. I called and got an appointment that worked, even though it wasn't at our normal office with our regular doctor. He prescribed an antibiotic, and they went on their way.

Until Tuesday. The spot was more tender, and spreading. By the evening we decided to take her to our clinic's evening urgent care and Dr. Bob agreed that the antibiotic wasn't quite cutting it, and gave her an injection of another antibiotic to give the original one a boost. Back home.

Wednesday morning - still tender, and spreading outside of the marks they had made around the spot the night before. Bobbi went to school, but when I picked her up, the nurse was looking at her leg, and was quite concerned, suggesting that a trip to the ER would not be out of line, and she said she'd come visit Bobbi that evening if they decided to admit her to the hospital for IV antibiotics. Phew! So, for the third day in a row, Bobbi and Dad packed up and headed out to see another doctor. The verdict was that, yes, the spot was not getting better, and that the original antibiotic was probably not a good match, so prescribed a different, stronger one, and sent her home. (Yay!)

Thursday we finally started seeing signs that the spread was tabling, and by today it was looking - and feeling! - a little better. I got to take her to appointment number four at yet another branch of our clinic so she could see the same doctor she'd seen Tuesday night for a visual followup, and he confirmed that, yes, he's happy with the progress, and she should be good to go from here.

But what a lot of chasing!

Also this week, we heard back from a young woman we'd gotten in touch with a while ago about potentially doing some care-giving work with Reuben and Krassimir. The grant funding they receive can be used to pay for something like this, so we've got 9 hours a week for Reuben and 6 hours a week for Krassimir budgeted, and this week she told us that of the job opportunities she'd been looking into after the family she had been working with moved north, she's decided to spend her time with our boys!!! After this week in particular, we are very excited about a little bit of extra help around here. She's going to handle the boys' therapy runs on Tuesday and Thursday mornings (meaning Matt can just stay home and get some solid work done), and then will be here three afternoons a week from the time Reuben gets off the bus until we're ready for supper. We've known for years that we'd probably end up having some regular help, and this spring and summer we're especially grateful for another set of hands!