Warning: If you have a phobia of ticks, you might want to stop reading. I know some people are really grossed out, but they are just a way of life for us.
So, on the morning of Evan's birthday party I was changing Chloe's diaper and found the tiniest little seed tick you've ever seen on her right hip. I mean it is no bigger than a pin head. Like I said, although I wish they did not exist and suck my babies' blood... I have come to accept that ticks happen. I do not freak out about them. They do not scare me. So, I calmy get the tweezers. I put them as close to the skin as I possibly can and pull with firm, even pressure to remove the tick. Well, the thing just kind of falls apart on me. And then I see that the tiny little head of this little pin-head size tick is still there. I tried to get it with the tweezers, but couldn't. And it was definitely still there. I could feel it when I rubbed my finger over it.
Well, now what do I do? I've always heard you have to be sure to get the head when you remove a tick. Can't leave it behind. But what happens if you do leave it behind? I had no idea. I just knew you weren't supposed to. So, I get Matthew and he tries to get it with the tweezers. I try to push on it to get it to come out. No luck. So we pull out the needle and it didn't take long for us to realize that was never going to work. We could not keep her still enough. So, when all else failed, we googled it. One site said it must be removed. Two other ones said the skin would probably shed it on its own. I decided majority rules and I wasn't going to worry about it anymore until Monday at least. But, Matthew was worried. He wanted me to call the pediatrician.
So, I called. And then we left for the birthday party. They called me back on my cell phone on our way. And of course they said she really must be seen. They listed off some horrible things that could be caused by the tick's mouth parts being left behind. They asked if I could bring her to the office right now. Well, actually, no because we are on the way to our son's birthday party. They then said all they could recommend was to take her to Children's after the party. Really? The ER for a tick the size of a pinhead? I asked if it couldn't wait until Monday and she assured me that it must be taken care of today.
So, after the party, we headed to Children's Hospital where I sheepishly explained that she had the head of tick the size of a pinhead lodged in her right hip. Surprisingly, we didn't have to wait nearly as long as I expected as I assumed pinhead sized tick would not be high on the priority list as far as medical emergencies go.
We finally got back to see the doctor who looked at the speck on her hip. He then said, "Are you sure the head is in there? Maybe it's just a speck of dried blood." And proceeds to try to wipe it off. Seriously. Don't you think I would have tried that before bringing her to the ER? I told him I was pretty certain the head was there because I could feel it. He then goes out to get a magnifying glass. I hear him talking to the nurses at the station and it sounds like they have never seen a magnifying glass before. Wouldn't you think this would be a fairly standard piece of medical equipment? Anyway he comes back with, I kid you not, a black light that had a magnifying glass with it and he tries to use the black light to see this tick head. Actually searches all over the room for a plug, plugs it in, and turns this black light on. Real helpful. Then, he says, "Let me just get these tweezers." Again, I'm thinking to myself, don't you think I tried tweezers? Surprisingly they didn't work. So, he gets a needle. And he has me hold her on my lap. And he begins to work. He works on her for like an hour. She is screaming the entire time. Every few minutes he would say, "I think I got some of it. I've got about 80% of it now." Finally, he goes to get some nurses to help me hold her because I cannot hold her anymore by myself. They also bring her a grape popsicle. We lay her on the table and they hold her down (while one holds the black light/magnifying glass) and I am up by her head. She was trying her best to eat her popsicle while screaming her head off. There was grape popsicle, snot, and tears everywhere. I was sweating buckets!
Finally he declares her tick free and cleans up the little pinhead sized wound. He says, "well, it came out in about 10 pieces but it finally came out." The nurse said, "well, you're pretty good if you can get something that size broken into 10 pieces." My thoughts exactly. But, maybe not the "good" part.
But, anyway, we all survived. And I'm sure it was less painful than it was scary for Chloe. The good news is that she is tick free and fine. Here she is enjoying a leftover cupcake after the ordeal was over.
Next time, I don't care if it is an old wives tale or not, I'm trying the finger nail polish remover trick to get the head to release. What can it hurt?
No comments:
Post a Comment