It's times like this when the reality of having a prem baby really hits you. They're not just cute and small and put you through 5 months of hell when they first arrived. Their prematurity in some cases sticks with you for longer than that. It's the Bliss awareness week in February "cake a difference" so over the next few weeks I will be writing some things about the reality of a prem baby. Starting with this week.
Eleanor has been ill since the early hours of sunday morning. Turned out she'd caught a bug probably at nursery. We didn't know it was a bug until Sunday night when Lucy, her auntie and uncle, Mummy and finally daddy were all struck down with it too. Anyway Monday i took her to the GPs as I was concerned she couldn't keep water down and was asleep most of the day and night not her normal self. Way out of my Eleanor is poorly comfort zone as I'm used to dealing with lack of oxygen etc. Anyway GP said she'd be fine in 24 hours and not to worry about her and give her milk that'd settle her stomach. Anyway Milk had the opposite effect so bad that by tuesday lunchtime I was sufficiently worried to seek advice from the hospital. She was still being sick, still couldn't keep water down and had terrible dark circles under her eyes. The ward wanted to see her so despite feeling rough myself off we went with our over night bag and hoped we'd feel better within a few hours of arrival. A course of electrolates was prescribed we got as much into her as we could and we were sent home (phew!) with more to get down her over the next few days. The difference this simple little over the counter med made was incredible and she has finally today bounced back. I felt our GP could have helped us out better than they did. I phoned them on the tuesday before we trundled off to the hospital but they didn't really have any advice other than to take her to the hospital.
So a vomitting bug which for most kids would have them on the floor for 24 - 48 hours will have had eleanor off nursery for a week. She won't be going anywhere this weekend as she's still not on form and is very susceptible to other bugs and things. A shame as she has a birthday party to go to on Sunday at soft play but we know that she's too susceptible to go because of the bugs that will be there. Then there's the question of nursery should she go on monday or not? There will be bugs there too I know there will but I can't keep her off for another week can I? SHe'll never be there if this is what I have to do for a tummy bug.
I've been challenged by friends before because we tend not to do soft play or similar in the winter months. It's too risky for us Eleanor might catch something. She might get a chest infection. She might end up in hospital. We know she needs to get these bugs at some point but at the same time it's a pain in the butt when she's in hospital at the moment. It's a logistical nightmare. I can't just dump Lucy and become Eleanor's Mummy only. People don't think about how it works. It's torture 7 - 10 days of existing and not doing what you need to do.
Lucy however has shrugged this off and if she was aged 3 and at nursery she'd have been back today no question of it.
Eleanor also has had confirmation that ENT have been asked to refer her to the Yorkshire Cochlar Implant Service for assessment. She's officially in the category severe/ profound for her hearing loss and her hearing aid on the graph make very little difference. She certainly isn't accessing what she should be doing.
Tomorrow is a more positive day a new bed a new car but I'll tell you all about those tomorrow!
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