Life With My 2 Boys

On Monday it was REALLY REALLY hot all day, Sam had spent all day wide awake and feeding due to the heat and by the evening was not only sticky but also colicy. I decided to let him have a nice cool bath before getting him to bed and see if it helped to settle him down. In the bath he wasnt a particularly happy camper and just as I was about to get him out he somehow manage to flip onto his side and either all or part of his face went into the water - it was hard to see because of the bath bubbles. I immediately lifted him out and he came up with his face covered with bubbles, panicing and not breathing because his face was covered he thought he was still in the water so was holding his breath. When the bubbles came off he was crying and trying to catch his breath and I put him on his stomach over my lap with his head lower than his body so any water could drain out of him. I was somewhat concerned about him because he seemed to be taking his time to recover from what seemed like a minor incident so I called NHS direct, who were about as much use as a chocolate t-pot! They spend most of their time making sure that they ticked all their boxes and asking me stupid questions like had he been crying for more than 4 hours and did have a rash - he had an accident in the bath it wasnt relevent to check him for menangitus! - they said he was probably fine because his breathing was returning to normal and just to keep an eye on him in case he developed a chest infection

 

Tueday rolls around and Sam spent most of the day sleeping and not eating very much - due to the amount of time he had spent awake and feeding the day before I figured that it was mainly due to this and he was just playing catch up because he seemed generally well in himself. At around 6.30 he went down for a nap and when he woke an hour later the first thing I noticed was that he was hoarse, he was trying to cry and no sound was coming out but a guinea pig squeek every now and then. He then started to cough and didnt look well and because of the accident the day before and the useless nature of NHS "please dont sue us" direct I decided to call the out of hours GP service to see if he needed to be seen or could be left till I could get him an appointment the next day. When the GP called me back he said that he did need looking at straight away and arranged an appointment with the out of hours GP at our local hospital - so off we go in the car and I notice that when Sam is in his car seat he is struggling to breath slightly and when he crys he cant breath properly either. The GP was lovely and she gave him a good once over declaring that although his symptoms were blindingly obvious she couldnt find a sore throat or hear an infection in his chest but she wasnt happy with him because of his age and she wanted him to be seen by a pediatrician. So off we go again but this time to childrens a&e.

 

I have to say they tried to sort him out as quickly as possible, he went straight to the front of the long queue into a room to wait (for a long time as the Dr was in resuss with a 9 month old) but we werent to see anyone then for about 2 hours. The doctore eventually comes and he was lovely - he kept saying "thats beautiful" a lot so the friend of mine that was with me and I nicknamed him Dr Beautiful - he gave Sam a thorough once over and again could see he was ill and see his symptoms but couldnt find the cause. He concluded that he thought the bath accident was probably co-incidental and he was either starting a chest infection or he had a virus and that he would either go home and get better or get worse but I was to wake every 2 hours for the rest of the night and check he wasnt struggling to breath or at all blue!

 

So after a very sleepless night - not aided by the doorbell waking Elliott up when I crawled in at 4am - we came into wednesday!

 

Sam again spent most of the day asleep or briefly feeding - I took him to clinic to be weighed under the theory that if he was going to loose weight due to being unwell it would be a good idea to have a baseline for the loss did he need to see a dr again. By the evening he still didnt look well and then at around 7 he developed a raised rash on the side of his face, at which point I decided that enough was enough and I was taking him back to a&e to be seen again. On arrival we were in for another LONG night but after a breif stint in the waiting room were shown straight to a room to wait for the pediatrician, who was able to see us a lot quicker this time. She again concluded that he was obviously unwell but she couldnt find why and so she was going to consult the dr we had seen the night before, Dr Beautiful - as soon as he heard that Sam was back he came straight down to see him and find out what had been happening since the night before. They were both really concerned about him and decided to ask the registrar to come and see him,which took some time as he was trying to save the life of another baby at the time - one who sadly didnt make it. When he was able to be consulted he ordered for Sam to have a chest x ray, which happened immediately and as we walked back in to a&e he was looking at it on screen.

 

This is when we finally discovered the cause of Sams illness! He had infact inhaled bath water after all and the chemicals in the bubble bath etc were causing a bacterial infection in his bottom right lung, and he also found that he did infact have a sore throat in a really difficult to see place. He was allowed to go home (at 4am again) with a plan of how to sort out his feeds, calpol for his throat and antibiotics for his chest. They also said that it was a good thing that we went back because he was not going to get better on his own and my instincts were right about the cause of his problems.

 

Since then he has been improving day to day and although still not completely 100% he has started to find his little voice again, is awake and feeding more and is lossing his chesty rattle. It has been a tough few days and the worse thing in a lot of ways has been that he hasnt been able to cry - he gets upset but no noise comes out so I have been constantly been paranoid that he is crying and distressed and I cant hear him so car journeys and bed times have been stressful -  I found putting the crib on rock so it moved when he cryed helped give me a visual cue there and if it had gone on much longer I was going to attach bells to it so I would hear it moving too. Sam in himself has been a little darling and even when he was at his sickest at any point you could get him awake he was still smiling!

 

Here is a rare couple of pictures of the boys TOGETHER taken on Tuesday before we knew that Sam was ill

 

 

 

You wouldnt have thought there was anything wrong with him that afternoon