It’s been a really long day. My youngest got a bug bite sometime last week and Sunday we learned it was a staph infection. She went back to the doctor this morning who said it was likely MRSA, the dangerous staph that is resistant to most anti-biotics.
We took her to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital where another doctor confirmed it. I’ve seen enough stories on the news about MRSA to know this is serious. Several children have died from it. But our doctor didn’t seem to be that worried.
“Oh, we see this every day.” That didn’t make me feel much better though. Being in the news business our station and others have reported on children who’ve been hospitalized for days trying to beat this thing.
“The media makes it sound a lot worse than it really is” our doctor told us. “We see someone with MRSA every day, and not just in the last few weeks, we’ve seen this for a long time.”
It’s serious, sure. But in a lot of ways, MRSA is like the summer of the shark in 2005. Two or three people were bitten by sharks and suddenly, the news media reported on every time someone came remotely close to a shark in the Gulf Coast waters. MRSA is scary but the news media has reacted to every case making it seem, maybe, worse than it really is.
Delaney wasn’t admitted to the hospital. They drained the sore and gave her a strong round of the two antibiotics MRSA has responded to. She’ll go back to the doctor tomorrow morning and hopefully we’ll learn she’s responded.
I was supposed to leave early this morning for Kingsport to cover the Tennessee Baptist Convention. My news director didn’t hesitate when I told him about the phone call just a few minutes before I was going to leave. “Forget the story. Go to the hospital with your daughter. Get out of here!”
Around 4pm, I walked back into the newsroom and told him I thought I would still go, even though it was about 5 hours away. “No, you’re not going, go home to be with your daughter.” Part of me wanted to do just that, but I knew she was okay and I knew the story I was going to cover needed to be covered.
I talked with Cameron, talked with Delaney and finally decided to make the trip. So I’m sitting in a hotel room in Kingsport. I’ll cover the story tomorrow morning, feed my report back through out sister station in Knoxville and head back home.
I’m worried about her for sure, but she seems to be fine now.
Sooooo… How’s Delaney?????
sorry to leave you hanging.
Delaney is fine now. The test results showed it was MRSA but the antibiotics worked. She had a slight allergic reaction last night but she had just about finished all of the antibiotics anyway.
Fortunately she’s fine and no one else either at school or in our house has gotten it. We did a good bit of cleaning and washing our hands more than usual and maybe that kept it away.
An answer to prayer…glad she’s alright. Happy Holidays!