Thursday, June 19, 2008

A big adventure

Well. What a week it's been.

My poor baby got worse on Tuesday night, and by yesterday morning was so congested he was really struggling to breathe. His breathing was so noisy, and rapid...... and he was starting to get quite distressed. So, off to the hospital we went. Saraya was at school, so it was just Elijah and William and I. We were taken straight in and given priority consultation which was good as sometimes at the local hospital you can wait hours before being seen. I presume being a baby and obviously having respiratory distress, the nurses were keen to have him seen to straight away.
After being examined by a couple of nurses, a doctor and his senior colleague, and having a chest x-ray (horrible for William; I had to hold him with his legs extended and his arms up above his head), the doctor announced that we would need to be transfered to Hervey Bay hospital (a half hour from here) to be examined by the paediatric doctors there. And worse still, we had to go by ambulance as they were not keen for me to drive him up there myself as they wanted to closely monitor him. At that point I totally lost it!! It all sounded so serious. I remember Elijah looking up at me with big eyes and then just hugging me and kissing me. I was sleep-deprived and hence very very weepy. The nurse kindly phoned Stuart at work for me, and Stu managed to come straight up and have the rest of the day off to be with us. I cried and cried when he got there! I don't like hospitals and being there alone with a sick baby and a toddler who was trying so hard to be a helpful boy made my emotions really run.
Anyway, I was surprised when Cathy showed up unexpectedly......... she had known William had had a hard night, and managed to track us down. :) I felt so much better having familiar faces there with me. Stu livened things up for Eljiah too, and they managed to find some fun things to do while we waited for the ambulance to transport us.

It took over an hour for it to come, but finally we were on our way. Stuart and Elijah travelled by car, and I went with Will. He looked so tiny in the big baby capsule they had strapped to a hospital stretcher........... I couldn't stop crying for him! He was just so uncomfortable and looked so helpless. I sat by him and held his hand and just kept telling him how brave he was and that he would be fine.

Once there, we were seen by the paediatrician. She was happy that William's chest x-ray looked clear, however he has an upper respiratory tract infection which is viral (so no antibiotics needed, thankfully). She decided we would need to be admitted and stay for at least 24 hours so they could observe him and monitor his condition. Oh, how desperately I wanted to go home! I was so dissapointed we would have to stay overnight as I wanted to be home with my family, and didn't want Stu to leave me. But it's necessary when you have more than one child! Stuart and Elijah headed off fairly soon after we were settled as Elijah had been hanging around hospitals the whole day at that point. And so began my little vigil with William. After many hours of just holding him and struggling with his feeds, rocking him while he slept, etc. etc. his little nose finally started to clear. He settled into a deep sleep late last night, and by morning today his breathing sounded fairly normal again. What a relief for him! I praised God.
We were once again seen by the paediatrician. She and her colleague agreed that if William continued to feed well, and kept his stats positive, we would be able to go home this afternoon.

He did, and we did!!

It is SO good to be home. I missed the other 2 children and Stu so much, and the comforts of home. (though thankyou Stu for packing me my bag of bits and pieces and Cathy for delivering it last night- and keeping me company:)).
William is sounding a little chesty tonight as the mucous is settling on his chest now that it's moved down from his head. We need to watch his temp as that could indicate a secondary bacterial infection if it goes up. We have the vapouriser on and I'll be monitoring him closely again tonight.

I'm so tired physically after nights of being mostly awake, but mentally and emotionally I feel abundantly blessed by my family, and the support of so many friends who obviously care so much for us. Thankyou!! And I'm just so relieved to see William more comfortable.
Thankyou so much Heather for your kindness, and prayers!! I look forward to communicating with you in the following days.

Laura Ingalls Wilder once said "I think home is the nicest word there is".
I am certainly inclined to agree!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh Saminda, what an ordeal for you! I had tears in my eyes when I was reading this, because I just felt so terrible for all of you!

I totally understand your feelings. When Bee was a very tiny baby, they had to take blood out of her arm to check her bilirubin, because they thought she had jaundice. They pinned her down and stuck what seemed like a giant needle in her teeny tiny little arm, and I just lost it! I was so sleep-deprived, and so emotional from all the hormones, and they were poking my baby with a huge needle! They made me sit down and drink some water until I stopped crying. I think they thought I was a little crazy, but they clearly didn't understand the deep love a mother has for her children!

William remains on the prayer chain at my church, so he is prayed for every day by many people, including us! Also, I'm happy to put a "Prayers for William" request on my blog. I didn't want to do that without asking your permission first, but my blog readers are a fine group of Christian women, and they would happily pray for William.

Let me know if there is anything else I can do!

Renata said...

Oh you poor thing!! I will continue praying for his full recovery. What a dreadful couple of days you have had, but it is good news that he is getting better.
Renata

jazzy cat said...

Hi Min,

Very sorry to hear that William was so unwell! What a traumatic time for everyone! So glad that you had lots of friends around for support.

Love and hugs,
Jen

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