Luca takes a trip to the Children's Hospital

It’s been a long 24 hours. What I first thought was just a spider bite has lead to an admission to the UW Children’s Hospital. Luca had a strange and suspicious welt on his left temple starting yesterday morning. I got a call to come pick him up from daycare several hours later saying that he was crabby, had a fever and his face was becoming more swollen. We took him to see our pediatrician who agreed it was suspicious and sent us to UW Emergency Room to be evaluated. Several doctor evaluations, lots of questions, an IV, a CT scan and SIX hours later we were admitted to a room to start IV antibiotics. Despite having an IV and arm board to hold it in place, being bugged by doctors and nurses, having a fever and a face that continues to swell Luca is hanging in there. He has moments of crabbiness but is also playing a lot, smiling and using his favorite new words, “what’s that”? about everything he points to. He looks like he got beat up or maybe stung by 8 bumble bees. His left eye is now pretty much swollen shut and his face is very asymmetrical. We still think he’s adorable but admit he is a little funny looking. Our diagnosis so far are a double ear infection, mastoiditis and a facial cellulitis that they are still not quite sure about. The peds hospitalist, ENT team and not infectious disease are all working together to figure out what is going on and work out a plan. Right now he is on two IV antibiotics. My guess is that we’ll be here through the weekend and we’re crossing our fingers that he won’t need tubes in his ears or surgery. Right now Luca is taking a nap on his daddy.