Because everybody’s been asking…

I figured I should tell you all about what happened to Cassidy…

My dad has a cocker spaniel, Lucy. He’s had the dog for 16 years and I love the dor dearly. She is getting really old though, and in her old age she gone a bit deaf and I think even a little blind. She really does not like to have people, especially kids, in her face. At all. Well, my dad and Cherie are VERY good about warning people when they come in but when we got there Friday evening, both my step sisters were there as well as their four kids so the house was a little hectic and we all forgot to mention it to Cassidy.

After grabbing some sushi and Cold Stone we were all back a the house hagning out. I was not paying attention to exactly what Cassidy was doing. All of the sudden she started screaming. The kind of scream that makes shards of ice cold pain run through a parents blood. I was only about four feet away from here so I grabbed her and saw a stream of blood coming down her face. There was so much that I could not tell where it was coming from. I one sweeping motion that lasted about 2 seconds I grabbed her up, assessed her as best I could and was on the way to the kitchen counter. My dad said he was grabbing a cold paper towel as I was on the way to the freezer for some ice. When we got the blood cleaned up as best we could we realized she has two puncture wounds. One on her nose and one on her cheek from the dog.

We got the bleeding to slow and put some bandaids on her face and headed to the Emergency Room. Four hours later she had been cleaned up and they put the dermabond on the spot on her cheek and nose and told us to keep her out of the sun (the reason she’s wearing a hat in all the beach pictures from the next day) and to not let her get it wet (so SWIMMING at the beach was out of the question. 🙁 ). We also picked her up an antibiotic (Augmenton) as a just-in-case step. It wasn’t showing signs of infection but the doctor said better be safe than sorry.

Jump ahead to Sunday…

The spot on her cheek was doing really well. The one on her nose however had seaped enough puss that it had actually broken through the Dermabond. That’s why you see the scab in the pictre I posted Sunday evening. I told Mary to take her to the doctor the next day as I dropped her off Sunday evening but was not too worried because it was clear puss and that it just expected from a wound like that.

Okay, now on to Monday…

Mary took her to the doctor and he examined it and gave her a stronger anti-biotic but didn’t indicate that there was an infection. He also said to let the nose heal without further Dermaboding it because it was scabbing over already on it’s own. That made me feel even better becuase I was getting worried the only way we were gonna get it to hold together was through ACTUAL stitching.

Then today…

She sprung a fever. Mary took her to the fire dept a few doors down from them just ot have one of the guys look at it and they told her to get to the doctor. At the urgent care, the doctor said that she had a really bad infection. So bad that they not only prescribed a stronger prescription, they actually shot antibiotics directly into her nose and cheek. 😥 That’s scarry because anytime you have an infection that close to the brain, you are REALLY playing with danger.

I mentioned to Ben that I thought it was odd that at the Emergency Room the night of the accident, they had only used saline solution to wash the wounds out, not alcohol of iodine or even peroxide. *sigh* They shot antibiotc into her FACE. Mary had to hold her down while they did it. That makes my heart hurt more than I could even begin to describe. And I’m not there to hold her and tell her everything is going to be okay. I talked to her on the phone but she still sounded like she was just in shock over the whole thing. I’ll try and talke to again tonight or tomorrow when she’s not so out of it.

Pray for my baby. She needs it right now.

*sorry for any spelling/punctuation errors.. Just thinking about this makes me cry and it’s hard to type that way…

6 thoughts on “Because everybody’s been asking…

  1. Christmas of 2000 I got bit by my friend’s dog in a really similar situation (old blindish/deafish dog startled…etc.) and went to the urgent care. The FIRST thing done when I got into the rooom was have one nurs have me lean over a table, which hurt like hell because of the bite on my leg, and jab me with a needle (tetnaus shot) and another one shove up my pant leg and swath the bite with iodine. This is before I even had a thought that there was going to be a doctor involved. They didn’t even check to see when my last Tetnaus was, they said it was a precaution. Knowing that, it’s pretty fucking appauling they didn’t clean or in some way cauteize before they sealed the wounds. It sounds like it’s hanging off the border of malpractus. I can’t spell. Anyway, if it was an infection, and they gave her an injection for it, her face probably burns like mad and probably will for a day or so. It’ll probably be itchy too. Sounds like it needs a lot of popsicle therapy, among other things.

    Ugh. I am sory to hear about this though, it’s an all around crappy situation. She will be fine, though. If I can do anything, I’ll be online all night. One thing I’m good at is listenig…er..reading.

  2. Poor Cassidy! Alot has happened 🙁 I feel so bad for you my eyes are tearing up. I can only imagine the torture this is causing you to know your angel is going through this.
    Here’s some info: http://www.aafp.org/afp/20010415/1567.html
    It says that saline is a common and sufficient means to clean up most bites..I think what the ER doctor failed to do was prescribe an oral antibiotic (since the punctures were covered to use the ointment).

  3. Your por baby! I’ll say a prayer for her. The good thing is that kids tend to heal really fast. I am sure she will be just fine in no time. Also, you may want to be sure that she stays out of the sun until thr scabs heal so that there is no scaring. Poor thing. 😥

  4. They did give her an antibiotic. It just wans’t strong enough to work. I’m so glad that she’s feeling better. Thanks for all the well wished guys!!
    And thanks for the link, Eu!!

  5. Poor Cassidy:( I got her a little stuffed animal that says the now I lay me down to sleep prayer that I’m going to take her. Hope she is feeling better:angel: I cried just thinking about it:!: We have to meet Gary in Barstow tomorrow and then I’m going to take it to her on the way back.

    Also Julie is right that alot of the time they only use NS, iodine burns like a SOB on any open wound like that and alot of pediatricians would rather not put the patient through that. And it probably would not have made a difference. JMO but from working in urgent care I would say that the mistake was closing up the wound. I understand they did it for scarring reasons, but normal procedure is not to close up a dog bite right away because of the high infection rate:( And using dermabond is even worse because the wound cannot breath at all. At least with stitches there is a little breathing room, but the Dermabond is so airtight that nothing can get out.

    Sounds like they’re ahead of the infection now so that is GOOD!

    Hugs to ya Anna! Heather has been down this road a few times and I know how hard it is;)

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