This past Thursday the kids and I went to a local splash park with my two sisters-in-law and my nieces & nephews. It’s a park we have been to many times, but not since they added the “splash” element. Sophie went for the water right away, but Joshua was, as usual, a little more hesitant. Eventually, we ended up at the part of the park he was used to, where he and Sophie played in a large sand play area. Before we had been in that area too long, I noticed a bug bite right at the side of his right eye. It was about 2:30, and although I had sunscreened the bejeebers out of the kids, it had not even occurred to me to put any bug repellent on them. But bugs LOVE Joshua, and he has actually been bitten in that spot a couple of times before, including once when we were on vacation in Virginia where it got a bit swollen. So instead of real concern, I had more of a “not-again” feeling! Here’s a picture of him right after I noticed the bite. You can barely see it:
Here’s a picture about 5 minutes later:
Here’s a picture about 2 or 3 minutes after that:
After I took this shot, Sophie wanted to wander so I followed her around and left Joshua with my sisters-in-law. A few minutes later they approached me. “Ah, I think you need to take a look at his bite,” they said, “it kind of looks like it’s a big blister underneath his eye. You might wanna have it looked at.”
I grabbed Soph and went over to where Joshua was. I took one look at him and pulled out my cell phone and dialed the pediatrician’s office, which was thankfully about 2 minutes away from the park. They had an opening in 30 minutes. The swelling under Joshua’s eye was HUGE and definitely looked like it had to be filled with fluid or something. It was about the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I tried not to panic, and made arrangements for my sis’ to take Sophie home with them. We did the car seat-swapping and I got Joshua in the car. We headed over the doc’s office even though I knew we would be early. I took a picture of him after we pulled into the pediatrician’s parking lot. Here is what he looked like:
It had been about 45 minutes since he’d been bit.
YOWZA!! Can you see why I was trying not to PANIC??
Joshua was being such a trouper, meanwhile. He claimed it did not hurt, and he was as cheerful as could be. When we went into the office, the girls who checked us in were like “Whoa! We can see why you came right over!” We read every book in the waiting room and then finally were called back. The nurse gave a cry of “You Poor Thing!” when she saw him. We weren’t able to see Joshua’s regular doctor (but I was just thankful to not be at urgent care!) and when the available doc came in the room she kind of did a double-take. Uhhhh…generally not a good sign! She got all the info from me about when, where, how and then checked him out thoroughly to make sure the reaction wasn’t affecting his throat, etc. Joshua informed her immediately that he did NOT want a shot and as soon as she said “no shots, no shots” he was a super-happy camper. She said that he was obviously sensitive to bites abnd that whatever had bitten him was “more venomous” than a mosquito. She wrote us a prescription for something “like Benadryl, but stronger” and told us to come back the next day to make sure it wasn’t infected. The Dr. marveled as she left at how cheerful Joshua was! I was so proud of him (and I felt so terrible that his EYE WAS THE SIZE OF A GRAPEFRUIT!) that I bought him a toy at CVS when we went to get his prescription. Even the pharmacist was amazed that a kid with such a GINORMOUS EYE could be so happy!
After we got a dose of medicine in him, I could see the swelling begin to go down within an hour. By bedtime, he looked like this:
(also pictured is the brownie I bribed him to take his medicine with, which Jenny and Jill were fighting over on Twitter. Seriously ladies, have some decency!)
And the next morning, like this:
The follow-up appointment with his regular doctor went well, and he said he looked good, just to keep him on the medicine for one more day.
I was very relieved, because for a minute there, I thought Joshua and I were going to have to travel the Freak Show circuit, with him earning his living as Cyclops Boy or GinormEye and me standing by as his pushy yet overprotective stage mother.
But thankfully, his little face is now as beautiful as ever. However I have decided never to go to a park again, ever, or anyplace where there are bugs. So we’ll just have to become famous for being eccentric hermits! With normal-sized eyes. Or something.
(P.S. We are having a great back-to-school contest! Enter here if you haven’t already!)
