My Scare, My Regret

This happened exactly when Inarah turned 3 months old, on 9th November 2012. It started as a joyous day. I worked as usual and since it was Friday and Naim not on call for the weekend, we would be going back to KK after finish work at 5. In the afternoon Inarah was given her bath and wore the clothes that I chose (she wouldn't be given her bath at KK since we would reach KK around 9pm). Then I took her to the clinic for her routine check up and DTaP injection at around 3.

As usual, she cried during the injection but after given breastfeeding she calmed down and enjoyed the attention given by the nurses at the clinic. On the way back to KK, we stopped by at a restaurant for a snack. Took a few 3 month old picture of her looking so cute.

Inarah after her shot

During the drive back at around 7.30 pm she started crying. She would stop for around 10 minutes after feeding then cried again.  I feed her again and she would calm down. She would also calm down when held close. She would sleep for a while then woke crying again. This lasted for the whole night. It worried us. My mother thought it was due to her tummy. My husband also thought it was because of her tummy. I thought it was because her injection. I checked if her diaper was too tight. I gave her blankets since she was a bit cold. But she still woke up crying. Three of us couldn't sleep well. It was worrying since Inarah was never like this.

In the morning at around 8 Inarah and I woke up. She woke up cheerful as usual. I was a bit relieved since the last cry she woke up was around 6. Since her last bath was yesterday afternoon, I prepared her for bath early. I removed her socks first. Inarah cried and I did have to tug a bit the right sock. To my horror I found her right foot swollen. Her capillary refill time was more then 2 seconds. Her right foot had compartment syndrome. The sock had cut and constricted her ankle causing the tissue fluid to accumulate. That was the cause of her irritability of the night.

The swollen right leg

The guilty sock

My regret was that I didn't check her socks and mittens that night. Thankfully I wasn't too late in removing the socks. If I was late in removing the sock, my child could have lost her right foot. That whole day I didn't wear her any sock and after a few days the swelling subside. That was a lesson learned. If a child is irritable, checked for everything. Remove everything and if nothing doesn't work to calm the child, bring her to the clinic or hospital. This scare and regret would always haunt me.