I am thinking of switching to a new pediatrician. He said to call him in a week if E.'s condition hasn't improved. It hasn't improved at all and so I called the office this morning only to find out that the doctor is in Florida this week. Um, really? Why he didn't bother to tell me that he was going to be out of town when I saw him last week?
Fortunately, this doctor is part of a large group practice. I called the nurse hot line they provide and the nurse is now checking with another doctor to see if he wants to prescribe a topical antibiotic as well. Apparently the bacteria are living under the yellow crusties on E.'s face and so it should help it if I scrub them off with antibacterial soap and then put this ointment on. I tried it this morning with some Neosporin. And do you know what I discovered? Babies with painful rashes don't particularly like to have them scrubbed!
The nurse said that with impetigo it usually takes a full week for the scabs to go away. If they aren't gone by Thursday, I think I'm going to take E. to a dermatologist.
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It seems like quite a few people find this entry searching for pictures of babies with impetigo. In case you don't read the other entries, it turned out that E actually had eczema that was misdiagnosed as impetigo and consequently allowed to developed a secondary infection. It took over five visits to different doctors (including the only pediatric dermatologist in my state) before it was figured out. If you have a baby with a worsening rash like E had and your doctor hasn't mentioned the possibility of eczema, I would definitely ask specifically about it and/or find a doctor with a fair amount of experience with skin disorders. At the time I didn't know better and E suffered needlessly for almost a month.
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On an unrelated note, I think I'm going to start using my middle name when asked for a name by restaurants. We ordered some takeout over the weekend, and when I went to go pick it up there was confusion because on the phone they had misheard my name as "Stace." Even though I spelled it out "F as in Frank, a-i-t-h." When I got there it took over 5 minutes to sort it out. This morning the nurse also thought I said "Stace." When asked for my name on the phone, I usually try and emphasize the F sound, but often to no avail. People even sometimes write it down as "Saith." SAITH? I know that people in Utah are used to hearing all sorts of weird names, but Saith? C'mon!
Labels: doctor, E.