What do they say about the best laid plans? I had plans to keep this blog up to date and to get my designing up to date as well and then we all got sick.
Miss Five has been sick on and off for the past month or so but on the day when everyone went to the doctor about 3 weeks ago, she was diagnosed with a throat infection. A course of antibiotics later and she was back at school for two days. On the Saturday afternoon she starting crying, running a fever and complaining of a sore cheek. I tried panadol but the temp didn't budge. About 10pm I decided to call 13-Health to see if I was able to give her half a crushed Ibuprofen tablet of mine to see if that would work. They told me to take her to the hospital. So here I was just before midnight at the local hospital ER. The doctor diagnosed an ear infection and another course of antibiotics. The problem we have discovered with Miss Five and high temps is nausea and vomiting - both of which happened when we got back from the hospital that night. Back to school on Monday. By Wednesday morning she was lethargic and running a fever again. I took her to work with me and she just lay on the floor of the office and didn't move except to ask for water or complain about a headache. I called The Man of the House and he came home from work and got her.
That night was Mr 17's birthday party (he is now Mr 18). The Man of the House and I spent the night running between guests and Miss Five who was laying on the lounge. Couldn't get her temp down. She slept (if you could call it sleeping) between us that night. I rang around the doctors surgeries the next morning to see where I could get her in. As luck would have it, I got her in with the dr who had seen her for her throat infection. She told me she had no idea what was going on and referred me to the Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane. Frantic call to The Man of the House and we picked him up from work on the way to the hospital, where we sat in the ER waiting room for hours. She was seen by a doctor and tests were prescribed but they had to wait for a free bed before anything could be done. Eventually, we got a bed and tests were done. Whilst we were waiting for results we took it in turns to sit in the chair beside her bed. She was diagnosed with Bacterial Pneumonia and admitted to the wards. Long story short - she was kept in for 5 days whilst they hit her pretty hard with antibiotics. She kept getting temperature spikes which necessitated more tests. Miss Five developed what the nurses called 'Blue Shirt Syndrome'. This meant that as soon as anyone in a blue nurses shirt approached her, she would start shaking and crying. She also developed a love/hate relationship with one of the doctors - Dr Charlie (who looks a bit like Sayid from Lost).
Anyway, like any good scrapper would, I asked DH to bring up the camera and I have photos!
First one is Miss Five sleeping the morning after she was admitted.
I took this photo without a flash and using only the early morning light from the window so it's a bit blurred. She was sleeping so peacefully that I didn't want to wake her.
This was taken on the Sunday morning when she was feeling utterly miserable after having had her drip redone (and extra bloodtests) the night before.
Later that morning, we were watching the Starlight Channel on tv. The Starlight Channel is run by the Starlight Foundation which is a charity for sick and dying children. The tv station is an in-hospital thing run by various Captain Starlight(s). This morning Captain Glitter was on and she was running a competition. With the aid of one of the nurses and her mummy, Nada was one of the prize winners. Captain Glitter came around later to give her a prize and asked if she wanted to come down and be on tv later that afternoon. I think it was from then on that Nada really started to improve. So after a bath and washing her hair, we went to explore one of the many wonderful play areas in the hospital. Her room was beside the dinosaur themed play area but around the corner was a circus themed play area filled with clowns and other circus themed murals and sculptures.
Then we made our way down to the Starlight Room. This room is a wonderful place for children to have fun whilst in hospital. It was filled with computers, x-boxes, a big screen for movies, craft and musical instruments. The Captains are trained to do face painting and make balloon sculptures. It was a common site to see children in the wards waving around balloon swords, dogs, flowers and other creations. Captain Glitter spotted Miss Five and invited her into the control room and introduced her to the hospital inpatients. She helped run the next competition and answered questions. It really made her day.
Finally on Tuesday afternoon, we were discharged from hospital. We drove home, I got changed and then went straight to work.
We're going away on Sunday to Caloundra for a week and you've no idea how much we're looking forward to it. ;)
