Sick to the back teeth!
When I was 22 weeks pregnant with my little lady I found out that she had a slight problem with her kidney, I was reassured that it was a fairly common problem and once she made her grand entrance into the world, normally a course of antibiotics would sort the problem out. Unfortunately after a year on the antibiotics, numerous scans and a referral to the very great Great Ormond Street Hospital it was quickly decided that the only solution would be surgery. Of course, this is possibly every parent’s worst nightmare, but we knew she was being taken care of at the very best place so we sat back and waited for her all important operation date to come round.
Now other than the above I would like to think both of my children were very healthy, of course we deal with the odd cough and cold from time to time but nothing a little bit of Calpol and TLC wouldn’t cure, so saying this… you actually wouldn’t believe the month we’ve have just had. It was as if as soon as we received Imogen’s operation date all the germs had an annual meeting and declared war on us!!
First came the vomiting bug, Imogen kindly brought that upon us one early Monday morning after her usual cup of milk…the clean up began at this point and continued for around a week with Fin contracting the bug around the Wednesday – thanks for that kids. Cleaning up sick isn’t my best look. With my hair pulled back and yellow marigolds on I made the call to the hospital cancelling Imogen’s pre-op appointment. Next came the Chicken Pox scare, in the same week as the sickness, a good friend of mine text me to let me know that her son, whom we had enjoyed the weekend with had the Pox. The Poxy Pox! Call number 2 made to the hospital putting me through to ‘infection control’…oh great!
Suddenly both kids seemed fine and I thought we were ‘germ-free’…NO! A week later, and on a really convenient Sunday evening, Fin develops a temperature and says he can’t look into bright lights. With my nerves dangling on a knife edge, I telephone the out of hours GP and get an appointment that evening. Thankfully, it wasn’t too serious, an ear and throat infection and a nice bit of conjunctivitis to boot. Thanks germs, because eye-drops are really easy to administer to a 2 year old…
Thankfully Imogen stayed healthy enough to complete her pre-op appointment and we were all set for her operation on the Wednesday. Fin had also recovered, albeit suffering with a serious case of ‘beware of the eye-drops’ phobia! So you wouldn’t believe my luck when the very weekend before D Day, small spots start to appear all over Imogen’s body – first a couple around her neck, then on her bum, by the next morning, arms, legs and face. The germs were clearly having a laugh at only my expense!! Off to the doctors I go, yes, yes, me AGAIN! (‘Smiles weakly!’) Panic over, it’s an allergic reaction to something (‘could be anything’ the doc said – well that narrows it down) and it could go as quickly as it appears. Right, so all straight forward then…
Maybe we won the war against the germs or maybe at present we have a peace treaty, either way Imogen’s operation went ahead as planned and she is recovering well. Long may the good health continue as I was very close to adding the doctor’s receptionist to my Christmas card list!!
