Noah Punctured His Foot
My poor baby.
Two days ago, I was in the livingroom, when I heard a scream...and then Bonnie and Caleb came running in the room, saying, "Mommy, Noah stepped on a nail!"
I jumped up and ran back there and was wondering what kind of nail he could have possibly found to step on.
When I saw him, I was shocked. And scared! There was the top part of a door frame with nails sticking out of it (apparently, Caleb had brought it in from the barn to play with earlier.... I had no idea!), and Noah's foot was attached to the board by one nail.
I tried to tug on it immediately, but then realized it was a much deeper puncture than I had imagined, and it wouldn't come out with a simple tug. I told Noah I'd need him to lay down while I pulled it out. OH I would have been so grateful to have not had to do this part!
I winced, imagining the pain it must have caused him, as I pulled the nail ONE INCH out of his foot. I had to do it slowly! UGH!! Bonnie put her hands over her eyes and said "Oh oh oh oh oh" while I was doing it. She couldn't bear to look.
He was so good about it, little sweetie pie. He simply whimpered a little. I would have expected him to be screaming from the pain!!
I ran with him in my arms to the kitchen, found a bowl, dumped some epsom salts in it with water, and stuck his foot in it. I told him to stay there and hug Bonnie while I called Daddy on the phone. Bonnie held him and he held her while I called James.... He told me to soak it in epsom salt, which I had already done, and then to put some antibiotic cream on it. So I did these things, and everything seemed like it might be fine.
I even soaked it that night again, to make sure it was cleaned out. Noah stayed on the couch the rest of the night and even ate dinner there. He was too afraid to get up and put pressure on his foot.
The next day, I noticed he kept crawling, to avoid putting pressure on his foot. I kept an eye on the foot, and then I noticed that it was starting to swell and turn red on the top (sort of as if he had a bee sting). It was not hot, and he did not have a fever, but I still was worried about it.
So I soaked it again in epsom salt, and then I decided to go to the doctor.
The doctor said that it was a nasty infection, and that there was no way I could have possibly cleaned it out completely since it was such a deep puncture. He drew lines on Noah's foot where the infection ended, so he would be able to tell if the redness would spread by the next day. Then, he gave him a shot of antibiotics.
He told me Noah would need a tetanus booster, and asked if he was up to date. He isn't, because I haven't vaccinated him at all. They apparently aren't used to people not immunizing their kids, so they didn't have any tetanus shots for children under 10, so I had to make an appt to come back later to get the shot. I gave in to getting the shot, after a long consideration about it, because the doctor said the alternative could be death- and of course, that scared me. I would never want to be responsible for that. They did tell me that there is no more thimerisol in the vaccines anymore, to put me more at ease about it. (Although that's not the only thing that bothers me about them). He gave me some antibiotics to give Noah every 12 hours.
This morning, when Noah woke up, he walked (hobbled) into the livingroom, so I was glad to see he could put some pressure on the foot again. His swelling had gone down dramatically, along with the redness.
So looks like things are just getting better now!
Two days ago, I was in the livingroom, when I heard a scream...and then Bonnie and Caleb came running in the room, saying, "Mommy, Noah stepped on a nail!"
I jumped up and ran back there and was wondering what kind of nail he could have possibly found to step on.
When I saw him, I was shocked. And scared! There was the top part of a door frame with nails sticking out of it (apparently, Caleb had brought it in from the barn to play with earlier.... I had no idea!), and Noah's foot was attached to the board by one nail.
I tried to tug on it immediately, but then realized it was a much deeper puncture than I had imagined, and it wouldn't come out with a simple tug. I told Noah I'd need him to lay down while I pulled it out. OH I would have been so grateful to have not had to do this part!
I winced, imagining the pain it must have caused him, as I pulled the nail ONE INCH out of his foot. I had to do it slowly! UGH!! Bonnie put her hands over her eyes and said "Oh oh oh oh oh" while I was doing it. She couldn't bear to look.
He was so good about it, little sweetie pie. He simply whimpered a little. I would have expected him to be screaming from the pain!!
I ran with him in my arms to the kitchen, found a bowl, dumped some epsom salts in it with water, and stuck his foot in it. I told him to stay there and hug Bonnie while I called Daddy on the phone. Bonnie held him and he held her while I called James.... He told me to soak it in epsom salt, which I had already done, and then to put some antibiotic cream on it. So I did these things, and everything seemed like it might be fine.
I even soaked it that night again, to make sure it was cleaned out. Noah stayed on the couch the rest of the night and even ate dinner there. He was too afraid to get up and put pressure on his foot.
The next day, I noticed he kept crawling, to avoid putting pressure on his foot. I kept an eye on the foot, and then I noticed that it was starting to swell and turn red on the top (sort of as if he had a bee sting). It was not hot, and he did not have a fever, but I still was worried about it.
So I soaked it again in epsom salt, and then I decided to go to the doctor.
The doctor said that it was a nasty infection, and that there was no way I could have possibly cleaned it out completely since it was such a deep puncture. He drew lines on Noah's foot where the infection ended, so he would be able to tell if the redness would spread by the next day. Then, he gave him a shot of antibiotics.
He told me Noah would need a tetanus booster, and asked if he was up to date. He isn't, because I haven't vaccinated him at all. They apparently aren't used to people not immunizing their kids, so they didn't have any tetanus shots for children under 10, so I had to make an appt to come back later to get the shot. I gave in to getting the shot, after a long consideration about it, because the doctor said the alternative could be death- and of course, that scared me. I would never want to be responsible for that. They did tell me that there is no more thimerisol in the vaccines anymore, to put me more at ease about it. (Although that's not the only thing that bothers me about them). He gave me some antibiotics to give Noah every 12 hours.
This morning, when Noah woke up, he walked (hobbled) into the livingroom, so I was glad to see he could put some pressure on the foot again. His swelling had gone down dramatically, along with the redness.
So looks like things are just getting better now!
Oh, How terrible. It made my stomach just churn to imagine having to go through that. Thank God that Noah is ok. About a month ago, my 1 year old pulled my iron off my ironing board and down onto his face. It wasn't on, but left a nasty cut just centimeters under his eye. It could have been much worse. God watches over His children!
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Angie, that sounds awful! I am thankful that he didn't cut his eye!
Thank you so much for your caring words!
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what r your thoughts on vaccination. why don't u vaccinate? just curious
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Anonymous, no problem! I vaccinated my first son perfectly until he was two, he never missed a shot. My daughter, I also vaccinated until she was 6 months old.
After this, I heard something on the television about vaccines, and that triggered my curiosity, and I started researching it online, and realized the ingredients that make up vaccines are horrible. For instance, some contain aborted fetal cell lines, many contain formaldehyde, mercury, and a whole lot of other toxic ingredients. From the research I was able to do, it appears that because of these toxic ingredients, a vaccine can actually lower an individuals ability to be immune, rather than boosting it. For example, many people who get the flu shot become TERRIBLY sick from the flu. This is NOT because the flu shot actually causes the flu (except the mist kind), but because the shot lowers the individual's immunity against sickness, therefore, if they get sick immediately after receiving the shot, they will become sicker than normal. I've seen this happen many times with many people I know. I also read a lot of information which proved that the introduction of vaccines truly was not the reason that polio stopped occuring as much, rather, it was cleaner and more sanitized conditions, food transportation, etc, which caused the decline of polio. There were charts which showed that the decline of polio began before the introduction of the vaccine.
Here are some websites which can give you more information if you are interested:
http://www.vaclib.org/
And here is a list of the ingredients in many vaccines (note: this list is a little bit outdated so some vaccine ingredients have changed since this page was created, but only have been altered slightly.)
http://www.rense.com/general59/vvac.htm
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Wow! I am nearly out of breath reading about Noah's foot condition. As a mom it hurts my heart that he had to go thru this. I am praying for his continued swift healing! God bless you. I love your blog! It feels like you are a part of my life. We homeschool too. You can see my page on Facebook.com under Melissa Welch if you want to know about one of your readers. Have a GREAT day!
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Melissa, thank you ! I will try to find your page today. If I have problems finding it, I will let you know, as I am not very familiar with facebook.
Thank you for your very kind words!
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I am glad Noah is okay too. I can't even imagine doing that. Scary scary! I love Epsom salt. I have used it in the tub to help me relax after a rough day. It relaxes every muscle...
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I should try that sometime. I never have used it except for infections! LOL
Sounds very relaxing!
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Ouch!!! I was wincing as I read the story. I was waiting to read we took him to the dr...blah blah blah.
Lock jaw (caued from rusty old nails) is rare, but can happen You do have 4 hrs from the time the first symptoms of lock appear to get the vaccine.
We vaccinate...and did the research and pray over the issue. But we believe the benefits of vaccinations out way the risk, by a long shot.
So glad Noah is doing well!!
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Thank you for that information, Tia. I didn't know that about lockjaw the the time frame to get the vaccine!
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Oh I'm so sorry! What an ordeal to go through! I'm glad that things are improving for Noah.
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Thank you, Sarah. : )
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Poor little guy. Poor you! I'm so glad you went for the shot, though. Tetanus is horrible. (My grandmother's brother died from it back in 1910 or so. Yeah, long ago...but they didn't have tetanus shots back then.) Better safe than sorry! I'm glad Noah is improving. My own son stepped on a nail once and had to get a shot, and then soak his foot for a few days. But it all worked out, as I'm sure it will with your little fellow!
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Mom2fur, thanks so much! I'm sorry about your grandmother. I agree, better safe than sorry.
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poor little noah~but he is SO CUTE in that picture!
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Thank you, Jennifer! It's good to see you're back online!!
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First how could you not know that your son had dragged in an entire door frame from the barn? Second how could you not know that your younger son was playing with said door frame? I hope this teaches you to watch your children better and to get them vaccinated, seriously there are reasons for vaccines and they truly are life saving!
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Anonymous, thank you for your concern towards the well being of my family. It is misplaced, but thanks anyway.
If you will read my post again, you may notice that I was speaking about a part of the frame, and not the entire frame. I am pretty sure that if it was an entire frame, there would have been no way for my older son to have possibly gotten it in without my knowing it, of course. The piece in reality was quite small.
As for my younger son, he wasn't playing with the frame. My older son had left it laying on the floor in his bedroom after he had finished playing with it, and when my younger son walked into the bedroom to get a toy, this is when he stepped on the nail. How long does it take to step on a nail? Usually, it happens within a matter of a second.
As for vaccinations, I am still against them. I reluctantly gave him the tetanus shot, even though I feel that it was in most likelihood, not necessary.
Hope that answers your questions!
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You are right...it only takes a SECOND no matter how closely you are watching your children.
Good reply though...well said...
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Thank you, Racheal!
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Aww... the poor little guy. Glad he's feeling better now!
I noticed you hadn't vaccinated Noah. My husband and I are starting to question them. All three of ours have been vaccinated for everything but chicken pox. But we've been hearing about things like autism, mercury, and fetal cells in regard to vaccines. We were wondering if you'd share some info on them, lead us to some websites where we can begin researching this topic, or share your/husband's convictions. We're very interested, esp. since we've got another baby coming late June and we've got some decision making to do.
Glad to hear Noah's feeling better.
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Hi! What a dreadful experience!
I answer the question and posted some links for someone in the area of vacination so I thought I would share, if I might:
My husband, who is sort of a numbers geek, really likes this site:
http://www.healthsentinel.com/graphs.php?tablename=graphcategories&id=4&event=graphcats_print_list_item
What these show is that all diseases have been on the decline, most sharply since the event of running water and indoor plumbing, even the ones that we don't have vacines for, like maleria and scarlet fever.
Here are a few more links:
http://www.advancedhealthplan.com/vaccination.html
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.informedchoice.info/index.php
I read somewhere the immune system isn't mature until age 5 or 6? (I think 6.) and that vacines work by giving you a chronic case of whatever it is they inject into you. Frankly, I don't want a minute case of ANYTHING for my immune system to fight, but I am not 100% sure on either of these facts, and neither of us have studied this issue as deeply as we could; my husband feels that vacinations are a money issue and too well funded for us to have unbiased info on them in the mass media and both sides of our family has had bad reactions to them so no one has really challenged us about it. Even the family doctor - he's never asked why or encouraged us to do so or anything, which I know can be rare!
HTH a little bit!
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Ashley S, thank you so much for helping me out with the links!! Those are great! (I noticed that some of the links would not work...can you try to send them to me by email so I can repost them for you? )
melissa duckwall,
I couldn't seem to remember all of the great sites that I found with all that info. Here is a page with a list of 100 links against vaccines- I'm sure you'll find a lot of information there!!
http://www.vaclib.org/links/vaxlinks.htm
-and Ashley's post above is excellent and explains much of my problems with the vaccines!
Also, another thing that made me think twice about vaccines is the fact that when I had my MMR shot as a child, I had seizures as a result, along with a fever of 105! My mom didn't continue to vaccinate me after that event, and I'm fine.
I hope this helps!
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Oh, poor little Noah. And poor little Mommy! I winced just reading about that. So glad he is doing better.
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Thank you, Debra....I appreciate it!
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Trying to repost the vaccination links to see if they will work this time. I don't know what's wrong with my blog. lol
http://www.healthsentinel.com/graphs.php?tablename=graphcategories&id=4&event=graphcats_print_list_item
http://www.advancedhealthplan.com/vaccination.html
http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm
http://www.informedchoice.info/index.php
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