It lasted exactly 8 months and 1 week.  (Hmm…Is it a coincidence that his healthy streak ended 2 days after his first day care experience?  Umm, doubt it.  But I don’t hold it against them).  

We have truly been blessed with a healthy baby.  Ben has been growing and thriving right on track, and has not gotten sick.  Until this week, the only health “problems” he’s had are his flat head (which has now rounded out, by the way) and his blocked tear duct.  We knew he would get sick eventually, and I kept “knocking on wood” every time I thought about the amazing fact that he hadn’t been sick!  In fact, on Monday, as Tim and I discussed our plans to take Ben to day care on Tuesday, we had a brief conversation about it:

Tim: Gee, do you think we should expose him to all those germs when we don’t HAVE to?
Me: He’s going to get exposed to them eventually anyway; why not expose him to a little each week this summer?  Besides, he’s built up a great immunity by breastfeeding and it’s a really clean day care.
Tim: Well, if he gets sick next week, we’ll know why…

Yeah.  

So Thursday morning, when Ben woke up, I noticed that the skin just below the inside corner of his left eye was a little red.  At first, I thought maybe I had massaged his tear duct a little too hard.  You see, we are supposed to massage there several times a day to help clear the blocked tear duct.  I had massaged it in the dark when I fed him in the middle of the night.  

Later in the morning, it was a little more red and there was increased drainage from that eye.  I thought, hmm… he might be getting a little infection in the blocked tear duct.  We might need to go to the doctor to get some eyedrops.  I decided to watch it for a while to see if it got any worse, since that eye almost always has some drainage due to the blocked tear duct.

That afternoon we went to the library and the grocery store.  When we left, the skin all throughout his eye socket was starting to get red and a little swollen.  On that trip, I had to wipe his eye at least every 5 minutes, and the drainage wasn’t clear or light yellow (like normal), it was thick and green.  As the trip went on, the drainage increased.  OK, I thought, that tear duct is definitely infected.  I called the doctor and got an appointment for first thing Friday morning.

When we got home from the trip (about 3 pm), Tim noticed the redness, swelling and drainage and agreed that the tear duct was definitely infected.  He was glad I got the appointment.  As the evening progressed, the redness and swelling (and drainage) got worse.  As we gave Ben his bath (at around 6:30), Tim began to get worried at the rapid progression of the symptoms.  I called the doctor and asked if they could squeeze him in that evening.  The doctor was completely booked and they were very sorry, but they couldn’t squeeze him in.  If it was an emergency I should go to the emergency room.  

Tim was very worried.  I was too, but I really thought it would be OK to wait until morning.  I finally decided to play it safe and take him to the urgent care center in Cheat Lake in hopes of getting a prescription.  On my way there, I called Ben’s doctor’s office.  They are a huge WVU-affiliated center with all kinds of care offered.  I said, “Is there ANY doctor there who can look at Ben’s eye and write a prescription for eye drops?  This has gotten significantly worse in the last few hours.  It is oozing green gunk and extremely red.”  The receptionist called back to the doctor.  The doctor was on her LAST patient of the day, but she agreed to stay late to see Ben!  Hooray!

I love Ben’s doctor.  She is very friendly, thorough, and knowledgeable, and she is a mom herself!  Even so, it was 7:30, so I just expected her to look at his eye and write a quick Rx and get us out of there.  However, she did a through examination.  She said she was glad I pushed and brought him in tonight, because his tear duct was not the problem.  Not only does he have pink eye, but he also has cellulitis!  This is a serious bacterial infection that moves quickly and can damage the eye muscles.  They occasionally have to admit kids to the hospital for it, but his is a mild case. (As bad as Ben looked, I’d hate to see a major case!)

She gave me eye drops and an oral antibiotic, with instructions to start them as soon as I got home.  She told me to watch him through the night and if it got any worse, go to the ER.  If it wasn’t any better in the morning, bring him back.  

Wow.

Ben slept through the night, but I checked on him several times.  It didn’t seem to be getting worse.  When he woke up Friday morning, it wasn’t as red but it was a LOT more swollen.  The green drainage was still plentiful.  I took him back to the doctor and they gave him a shot of antibiotics.  By Friday afternoon, it was looking better.  It’s still a little red and swollen, but he’s definitely on the mend.  Phew!