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In the nip of time

This was more than just a nasty big gnat bite...


Published by: Laura Hinton & Justine Marklew
Published on: 11th August 2011

My daughter’s giggles floated in from the garden. God, it was good to hear the kids getting along for a change!
Megan, 13, and her brother Owen, 17, were usually bickering, and poor Jamie, eight, never got a word in edgeways.
It was nice to get some peace and… ‘Mum!’ called Megan.
Maybe I’d spoken too soon!
‘Come in here,’ I shouted back from the kitchen. We’d just got home from holidaying in Wales, and I was knee-deep in washing.
‘Mum,’ she said, running inside. ‘I’ve got an insect bite and it’s really itchy, but Owen keeps telling me not to be a wimp.’
Pulling up the left leg of her jeans, she pointed at a red, raised bump the size of a 10p coin.
‘That doesn’t look too bad,’ I smiled. ‘We’ll put some antiseptic cream on it to stop the itching.’
We’d done a lot of walking while we were away, she’d probably been bitten by a gnat. Only, the way she was scratching at it, you’d think a poisonous spider had taken a nibble.
The next day, she was still frantically picking at the bite though. ‘Stop scratching it, or it might get infected,’ I scolded her.
‘But it really hurts,’ she moaned.
‘Let’s have another look then,’ I said.
Peeling back her leggings, I winced. The skin around the bite was red raw, swollen, and a yellow, pus-filled blister had formed. ‘That looks nasty,’ frowned my hubby Paul, 37, leaning over my shoulder.
‘I think you need to see the doctor,’ I agreed.
I made an appointment for the following morning.
‘It’s an infected insect bite,’ the doctor explained. ‘I’ll pop her on antibiotics, it’ll soon clear up.’
But over the next few days, the bite only got worse, growing to the size of a 50p as the blister turned into what looked like a mini, rotting cauliflower.
I took Megan back to the doctor, who put her on stronger antibiotics. ‘I’ll bandage it up, too, to stop her touching it,’ he said.
As I watched Megan over the next few days though, there was no danger of her trying to scratch it.
In fact, she barely had the energy to move.
And, when Owen pinched one of her prized Me to You bears off her bed, she didn’t even flinch.
It was like she didn’t have the energy to argue with him.
‘How’s your leg feeling?’ I asked her. Maybe she was just feeling sorry for herself.
‘It really hurts,’ she croaked, tears welling in her eyes.
‘Let’s have a look,’ I smiled.
Surely an insect bite shouldn’t be causing her this much grief?
As I peeled off the bandage though, I reeled back in shock.
The bite had disappeared, but in its place was a fleshy crater.
Previously, the size of a 50p, the hole was double that now. The skin around it was black and oozing a yellow, sticky liquid.
‘Oh Megan,’ I breathed.
‘Has it got worse?’ she sobbed.
‘I’m not sure love, I think we better get you to the hospital,’ I told her gently.
‘Maybe the infection’s spread,’ said Paul, as we drove to Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham.
‘Or she could be allergic to the antibiotics,’ I suggested.
But when we arrived, the doctor seemed as unsure as us.
‘I can’t understand why it’s not healing,’ he frowned. ‘We’ll keep her in overnight, run some tests.’
Paul went home to pick up the boys from my mum’s, while I stayed with Megan.
‘Am I okay, Mum?’ she asked.
‘Yes, darling,’ I soothed. ‘You’re being very brave. The doctor’s just trying to make you better.’
Paul came to meet us after Megan’s blood tests as we were on our way up to the ward she’d be spending the night on.
‘Come on, you,’ I smiled to my little girl. ‘You’ll be out of here bright and early tomorrow.’
Walking down the corridor towards ward E38 though, I noticed we were heading for the oncology department.
‘Isn’t this ward for children with cancer?’ whispered Paul, as if reading my mind.
‘Maybe they’ve run out of beds elsewhere,’ I said.
But, entering the ward, a doctor was waiting for us.
‘Megan, do you fancy watching TV while I speak to your Mum and Dad,’ he asked gently.
‘Okay,’ she shrugged, wandering off into the ward.
‘Is-is everything okay?’ I asked, a shiver running down my spine as we followed the doctor into his office. He looked from me to Paul and back.
‘I’m afraid Megan has leukaemia,’ he said.
It took a second for his words to register.
Paul let out a gasp.
‘N-n-no,’ I stuttered. ‘But it’s just an insect bite.’
‘It is an infected bite,’ he continued. ‘But it hasn’t gone away because her skin can’t heal properly.’
‘Because she has leukaemia?’ asked Paul sadly.
The doctor nodded. That explained why she’d been feeling so tired recently, too.
‘But is Megan going to be okay?’ I worried.
‘Her condition could have been a lot worse if she hadn’t been bitten,’ he explained. ‘In fact, that bite probably saved her life.’
I couldn’t believe it. The bite wouldn’t heal because of the leukaemia, but we wouldn’t have found out about the leukaemia it if wasn’t for the bite.
‘Will she be okay?’ asked Paul.
‘The odds are in your favour – thanks to that bite,’ the doctor smiled. ‘We’ll put her on a course of chemotherapy.’
‘We have to tell her,’ I said, turning to Paul.
Poor Megan looked shaken when we broke the news, but then she turned to me for reassurance.
‘Will I die, Mum?’ she asked.
My heart sank.
No mother wants to hear that question from their child.
But before I could answer, she smiled.
‘Nah, I’ll beat it,’ she said, grinning up at me and Paul. ‘Otherwise who’ll stop Owen from taking my Me
to You bears?’
Megan will need chemotherapy for the next two years but, after just four months, she’s responding well – the bite on her leg is fully healed.
Now, every time I hear her giggling in the garden, or even arguing with Owen, I thank my lucky stars. That insect bite saved her life in the nip of time.
Tracy London, 36, Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire