Moving and MRSA and Hives - Oh My!

Well, this whole moving thing has been quite an adventure, I'll tell you. But just in case you were worried, we all made it here safe and sound, just not the way we had planned.

We were so happy our house sold pretty quickly and our close date was Dec. 15th, so we figured me and the kids would move up before that cuz we were missing Brent BIG TIME. It worked out beautifully that he came home for Thanksgiving and was able to work from TX until our big move on Dec. 3rd. We had gone back and forth about how to get us and the van and our moving truck up there, and finally decided to use a moving company called ABF. You pack your own truck and they drive it - I was thrilled that my hubby wouldn't be driving across the country in the moving truck in the winter. I couldn't bear to spend money on flying us up there and shipping the van - but Brent (oh so rightly) refused to make the drive with Spencer in the car. Luckily my mom really wanted to come help us pack and offered to take him home on the plane with her. It took the Hallelujah chorus a few days to kick in as I mulled over my separation and germaphobe anxieties, but I finally saw the light and realized this was the perfect solution to avoiding 35+ hours with him in the car.

Everything was set and going well. My mom arrived on Monday the week of our move and I couldn't be happier to have her there. I had woken up to a lovely zit right under my nose that morning, and by the end of the day my whole lip was swollen. The next day it was even worse and I'm thinking, hmmm, must be infected. By Wednesday I was in a lot of pain and my face was swelling even more, so I went to the doctor. He took one look at me and got on the phone to find an ear nose and throat specialist (ENT) who could see me immediately and informed me that I wasn't going anywhere - I had a nasty staph infection that could get really bad really fast. Apparently there is a pretty major blood vessel that goes from your nose to your brain, so it could potentially be really dangerous. But seriously, I was like, whatever, I am MOVING on Friday. I can't exactly change those plans.

So long, story short (too late!) the ENT said he didn't want to try to lance it and drain it because it would leave a pretty big scar, so he started me on antibiotics and had me come back the next day. Well, by the next day I was getting worse and in some serious pain. I tried to discuss options of me leaving on the road trip anyway - I mean, there's medical care along the road, right? He said he obviously couldn't make me do anything, but that it would be going against his medical advice if left because I would be away from medical care and this could get ugly fast if I didn't start responding to the antibiotics. I went home in tears. What were we supposed to do? Everything we owned was in a moving truck on it's way to Seattle, my mom was flying home that night with Spencer and Brent was supposed to be at work on Monday morning. Brent and my dad suggested I fly home with my mom that night.

At that point I had a minor nervous break down. The thought of Brent driving alone with the girls on that long road trip during the winter was too dangerous in my mind. I was paralyzed by trying to make such an important decision under pressure - the flight was leaving in a few hours. I just kept thinking - what if something happened to them? We thought about having me fly home with Spencer and my mom drive with Brent, but realized that if I got sicker there wouldn't be anyone available to help take care of Spencer. Brent was totally fine with the whole idea and so I had to come (again) to the realization that I needed to have faith instead of fear. (Apparently it's a lesson I have to continue learning over and over). I set my all consuming fears aside (thank goodness for the peace that prayer can bring) and started packing my bags.

We barely made our flight but it all worked out. Spencer was an angel boy on the plane. The next morning I got into see an ENT in Seattle. He said this definitely wasn't going to heal with antibiotics alone - it was going to need to be drained. He said he would give me some pretty good numbing stuff and do it there in the office. If that didn't work I would need to be hospitalized and put under to do some more serious cleaning out and the IV antibiotics. Awesome. So he drugged me up and as I waited for everything to go numb I sat there and cried because I knew we had made the right decision to fly me here. If I had been on the road, I probably wouldn't have gotten this taken care of and would have ended up in the hospital. Turns out Heavenly Father and husbands know what they are doing after all.

Getting it drained was torturous. When I asked the physician assistant if it was pretty bad she said she prefers the word impressive. Ha ha. At that point I didn't care what pain I had to suffer - I just wanted it to go away. I was so swollen that I couldn't' even close my mouth and my lips were cracking. My face was so swollen and deformed I looked like a different person - and I totally couldn't smile. I looked like the grinch or a who. There was just so much pressure from all the swelling - after it was drained I couldn't believe how much better I felt. Plus my dr. was a genius and made the incision up in my nose instead of right on the zit so the scar would be hidden. They started me on a second antibiotic and I was so happy I was in Seattle so my mommy could take care of me :)

All was going well, I was on the way to recovery. Brent the amazing man that he is made it safely to Utah where he spent the day with family. He had to deal with some minor injuries to Sadie (no stitches, luckily) and I think all in all it was a pretty crazy day, but totally worth it to see family that we hadn't seen for a long time. I was so sad I had to miss it - we'll try to come back to Utah this summer! Then he drove up to Seattle the next day. I will forever be grateful and amazed at Brent for making that trip alone with the girls - and they made it safe and sound.

Later that week I was feeling much better. I had another followup with the ENT and mentioned that I was still getting dizzy sometimes. He said that might be a sign of an allergic reaction to one of my antibiotics and said if I got a rash to stop taking that one. We wouldn't you know that later that afternoon I got a rash. So I stopped that medicine but by the next day my rash was getting worse and seriously painful. By the following morning I was starting to get worried. Our friend that is an ER doc said to be careful, this kind of allergic reaction could get really bad where it starts to burn your skin (I think it's called Stephen's Johnson's syndrome). Anyway, I talked to my dr. again and he told me maybe I was allergic to the other antibiotic I was still taking (it's much less common to be allergic to that one, but still possible) and so he had me switch to a totally new antibiotic and start a round of steroids.

Anyway, if you are still reading this, you must really like me :) The steroids worked and I was finally better. I was really scared the staph infection would come back (I've heard of that happening to people) but so far so good. It all turned out ok in the end but I just had to keep laughing - was this really happening to us? Seriously! It's like the nightmare that wouldn't end. But it did. And now I am finally getting feeling back in my upper lip, so I don't smile like the grinch as much anymore. And the other miracle of it all - I didn't spread this highly contagious infection to anyone - especially my vunerable son. That's some good handwashing for you.