Last night, Namine complained of pain in her left leg — the one she broke back in February. After removing the brace and brace sock (which she’s been wearing since the cast was removed a month ago), I saw that her leg had a red, blistered area that was warm and painful to the touch.
Jessica and I took Namine into the Urgent Care, where they diagnosed it as some sort of infection. They told us to see the doctor as soon as we could, so this morning Jessica took Namine in to see her pediatrician.
It was there that we received some alarming news: it’s a pressure sore, caused by wearing the brace so much. (Under normal circumstances, Namine only wears her braces for therapy twice a week, and no more.) If the pressure sore was left unchecked, Namine would need a wound vac.
If you’re unfamiliar with the concept (and most are, unless you’re in the medical profession or you have personal experience), a wound vac is essentially what it sounds like: a vacuum for wounds. It’s used to clean a deep infection from the inside. They’re invasive, they’re uncomfortable, and they’re often painful.
Fortunately, Namine’s pressure sore and the resulting cellulitis was caught in the early stages, so no wound vac is yet necessary. Last night’s visit to Urgent Care already has her on antibiotics, and she also has a topical for us to put on her leg. We’ll watch it carefully over the next few days, and go from there.
Unfortunately, this all means that Namine cannot sit in the car for eight hours a day, which we would do on our drive down to Florida. Still, of all the possible outcomes, this is far from the worst. I shudder to think if we’d only discovered this once we were down south! And we do have some good news having come out of this, too: Namine’s orthopedic doctor told her she doesn’t have to wear the brace all day anymore.
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