Shern's Rove Beetle-Like Wounds

Sometime last month, Shern came to me and told me that he has some wound on his leg at the back of his knee. I thought it was some mosquito bites and just applied some balm on him.

The following day just before school, he told me it hurt and when I looked clearly, the wound looked rather raw like this.

22 September 2016

And because he told me it hurt him quite a lot, I applied some antiseptic cream and then bandaged it up so that he wouldn't knocked it or anything when he was in school, since the wound was at the folds behind his knee which made it even more painful because he needed to bend his knee to walk/sit/run.

22 September 2016

And then, I texted my friend whose hubby was his paediatrician and that was when the message came back that it may be infection and to see him if it got worse.

The following day, I some some blisters forming and the wound got more raw, that was when I panicked a little and straight took him to the hospital to see his paed. 

 

23 September 2016

And yes, doctor confirmed it was indeed wound infection caused by an insect bite and most probably by a Rove beetle, though he could not be 100% sure.

Rove beetles does not bite but their blood contains a strong toxin called pederin that causes burns on human skin. If you crushed the beetle, the toxin is released and absorbed by your skin.

And look at the mirror image of his wound and that the wound was at the back of his knee, he probably squashed the Rove beetle which caused his leg to be injured.

  

24 September 2016

So he was prescribed some oral antibiotics and also some antibiotic cream to apply. 

These were his wound conditions as the days progressed. (This is for myself to look back!)

It caused him so much pain that it was very difficult for me to apply the cream in a thin layer because it hurt him so much.

So using a cotton bud, I applied a rather thick layer on his wound, hoping to cause as little pain as possible.

And because of his injured area, the ends of his shorts tend to touch his wound. So he needed to wear his younger brother's shorts which were shorter so it wouldn't touch his wound. Hehe.

Poor Shern was kinda limping away as it hurt him so much to walk. But then when he saw friends or when he got excited, he could run though so I was not super worried! haha.

And he even wanted to go for his swimming lessons. He was limping while walking and he asked to go for his swimming lessons. 

I called up his paed who gave him the green sign to go if he felt like it because the salt/chlorine water in the pool would help to kill off the germs apparently!

In this photo below, you can see how deep his wound was. 

25 September 2016

26 September 2016

It slowly got better and the wound got more dry.

27 September 2016

28 September 2016

After about a week or so, the wound got really dry and was starting to peel off, though not the whole thing.

 

 

29 September 2016

30 September 2016

And then another week later, it got so much better.

 

4 October 2016

These 2 photos were taken just today and you can see that it is completely healed, just the scars left. 

 

10 October 2016

And so that was Shern's encounter with the Rove Beetle.
And nobody knew where he got it from; it may be at home or in school or during his other classes.
Well, just stay safe and pray hard that there are no Rove Beetles coming near you. The experience was a really painful one!