Thursday, November 02, 2006

What a day!

Today I had nothing planned - the dog had had her morning walk, there wasn't any grocery shopping to be done, no school field trips to help out with, or any other errands. Just a date with Girly Gothic QS and my stitching spot. I want to finish this little lady by the end of this coming weekend.

Ha!

Around 9.30am my mobile phone rings. It's the school. I wasn't particularly worried as they sometimes ring to confirm if I can help with a field trip etc. I am not an hysterical person but I must admit to feeling slightly concerned when the caller identified herself as the school nurse. Poor Caitlin had been bitten on her right hand pinky by her class's pet hamster, Speedy Max, while cleaning it's cage. The nurse wanted to know when Caitlin's last tetanus shot was because even though she was wearing gloves the hamster bite broke the skin. When I told her Caitlin's last lot of vaccinations (including tetanus) were done just over three years ago she checked with the doctor who said if it was less than five years then she should be okay. She would clean the wound with Betadine, put some antibiotic cream on it and bandaid it up. Now I debated with myself about going and getting Caitlin and taking her to the doctor just in case but when I spoke to Caitlin she said it hurt a little but she was fine, so I left it at that.

I tried to go back to my stitching but couldn't settle so I pottered around doing bits and pieces and caught up on a couple of emails.

Caitlin had a couple of after school activities this afternoon so I left home for school early to drop her tennis gear off and to make sure she was okay and check out this bite. While there I found out that the hamster had not been vaccinated, and after discussing this with the school nurse I decided that I would take Caitlin to the doctor to have a tetanus shot just in case. I had to pull her out of her after school activities (which she wasn't impressed about!) to get to the clinic before it closed. It is a 24 hour emergency clinic but the paedatric department closed at 4.30pm.

We hadn't been to this clinic before but I had heard it was good and they were much closer to home to the clinic we usually go to. I have to admit they were very thorough - checked Cait's temperature, weight, height, ears, eyes, nose, mouth - the works. They even did a skin test 20 minutes before giving her the vaccine to make sure she wouldn't have a reaction to it - not something I've experienced before. Back home you are in and out in five minutes! They cleaned and redressed the wound and prescribed a course of antibiotics just in case there was any bacteria still lurking around that may cause infection. I have to take her back on Monday for a follow-up.

Anyway, roughly 350Dhs and a couple of hours later she was done and I feel much better. Caitlin will have a tender spot on her rump for a couple of days but she forgives me :) Of course, a promise of making brownies tomorrow kind of helped too - lol!

We did have a bit of fun though - trying to explain what a hamster was!!

I'm hoping tomorrow is a little less eventful!!

2 comments:

Leonie said...

Isn't being a mum full of days like that? Hope you have a quieter dayto day!

Carol said...

Ouch! Poor Caitlin!