Lauren was admitted to St
Dominics hospital on Thursday morning.
She came home on Wednesday night with a persistent dry cough. I gave her cough mixture and she(we) had a really bad night, she also started vomiting. She insisted on going to Playschool on Thursday morning and I gave her some
Calpol to assist with the “feeling-better-process”. She did not have a temperature. At 9h30, the Playschool principal phoned to say Lauren had been vomiting and could not eat her breakfast and is feeling tired and miserable. I collected her from Playschool and took her to see our GP. I gave her some juice. When we were in the Waiting room, Lauren vomited again. When we got to seeing our Doctor, I carried her and put her straight onto the examination bed, as she was so weak, she could not sit up. The Doctor took one look at her and said I must go straight to the Paediatrician and that she thinks Lauren should go to hospital. I phoned Dean to meet me at the Paediatricians’ rooms and it was confirmed that she needed to go to hospital. She was admitted to hospital and put straight on a drip. She had blood tests and X-rays were done. The Paediatrician then visited and checked the results of all the tests and diagnosed the beginning of pneumonia and bronchial infection. She stayed in hospital overnight and then started with a runny tummy. Dean slept stayed overnight on the pull-out chair-bed. I had to go back and forwards and stay late into the night to nurse her and cater for her every need and moan. I stayed until 22h30 and was back at 8h00. Dean is Lauren’s emotional/entertainment support and I am the physical/emotional support. The nursing staff assist, but it is the little things that need to be done that the nursing staff would take a while to get around to. (like being right there when she vomits, washing her down after toilet routine and giving her water every 5 minutes to get her fluids up, also wiping her down for hours with a cold face cloth to get her temperature down, changing her into new
PJs after mishaps, stopping her from pulling out the drip accidentally, feeding her baby porridge from home, comforting her when she cries) Maybe it would be done, but the procedure would be a much lengthier one and they have so many children in the ward to assist with. Her temperature remained at 38 on Thursday night, so the doctor thought to prolong her stay. Dean stayed another night in hospital and I left at 23h00 and was back at 7h45. Lauren slept well on Friday night and improved. Her temperature came down and stayed down. She started eating a bit of mom’s porridge on Saturday morning and had some colour again in her face. The Doctor said she is not 100%, but could go home. They removed the 3rd drip and she was discharged before lunchtime on Saturday. She is still very chesty, but recovering well.
