Pages

Wednesday 15 April 2015

Our hospital visit

Some of you who follow me on Twitter might have seen that my poor little H had to go to hospital over the Easter weekend, here's what happened....

Saturday 4th April
10am I changed H's nappy and noticed a lump that looked like a big spot, but without the head, on his right bum cheek. We were about to leave to go to my mums so decided to show her and see what she thought. We got there and when we came back the shops at 12 I showed her. We decided I'd better get it checked out so after a quick lunch we went to the local Minor injuries unit.
The nurses said it looked like an abscess and got me an appointment with the out of hours doctor, that was in the same building for in half an hour.
We saw him and he said that it was definitely an abscess and gave us some antibiotics and said it should clear up in a few days. If it started bleeding or oozing I was to call 111.
We started him on the antibiotics and gave him some calpol and he seemed okay.
For the past week or so H had been really off and grumpy, I'd assumed that he was teething, but now think that it might have been this.

Sunday 5th April
H was still really grumpy and we'd had a terrible nights sleep, but we got up and I gave all 3 children their Easter presents then got them ready to go to church with my mum. H just wasn't himself all day. My in-laws came around in the afternoon for dinner, as they were going I changed H's nappy. The abscess had doubled in size and bled as wiped over it. So I called 111 and they were brilliant and got a doctor to ring me back ten minutes later. She asked loads of questions and told me not to feed him until we knew if he was going to need surgery. She booked us in with an out of hours doctor, unfortunately the clinic based over the back of our house, where there's usually out of hours services, was for some reason blocked out, so we had to travel 9 miles to the next nearest one.

The out of hours Doctor rang the hospital and after speaking to the paediatric team who told him to speak to the surgical team. I get the feeling that he didn't understand what they were saying because when we got to hospital they told us that they couldn't see us as he was to young to have the anesthetic there, the youngest they will anesthetise is 5 years old. We were then sent to the Manchester children's hospital who are the nearest hospital that are specialist enough to do it. Although at 30 miles away and over an hours drive it didn't feel very near.

We went to the A&E department by now it had gone 9pm and we were told that we would be expected, but they didn't know anything about us. We saw a nurse who did all his obs and we're told to wait for one of the surgical team to come. At 20 to midnight we were still waiting so Mr went to ask, 5 minutes later we were seen and told that they couldn't anything that night and we were to go home and be back by 8.30am. As we don't drive we had to wait the hour it took my Dad to get back to the hospital then another hour home. At 2am as we arrived home I gave H his last milk and food that he was allowed and went to bed.

Monday 6th April
At 6am feeling very tired on 3 and half hours sleep my alarm went off. H had his last bit of water and I packed our overnight bag in case we had to stay in. After a quick breakfast and slapping a bit of make-up on we said goodbye to the girls, who were going to spend the day with my mum, and set off.
We got there in plenty of time, so had a little bit of time to wait in the A&E waiting room. A nurse came and did his obs and put the numbing gel on the backs of his hands. Another 15 minutes later and a nurse came to take us up to a ward. I really couldn't believe just how big the hospital was, the corridor went on and on and on. We finally got there,a room with 4 beds. I had assumed we would be put on a ward with other babies but H was the youngest by quite a few years, I instantly felt sorry for all the other people in our room as they had to put up with hours of a poorly and even worse hungry baby.
H really surprised me and although I had to do quite a bit of pacing the room he didn't scream the building down like I expected him to. The nurses kept coming to check on him, at 12 o'clock we were told that if he hadn't gone to theater by 2 they would put him on a drip as he would start to dehydrate. But at 1 we were told that we were next in. The nurses fetched his gown and we got him ready.
It seemed like hours waiting for them to collect us. I managed to stay a lot calmer than I thought I would and kept reminding myself that it's a very quick and simple procedure. My only worry was that he'd react badly to the anesthetic. The nurse came and off we went, again it shocked me just how big the hospital was and when we finally got to theater number 30 the nerves kicked In.

I sat on the operating bed holding him in my arms stroking H's head and they put the mask over his mouth with the gas in. A few seconds later he was fast asleep, they took him off me and lay him on the bed. They let me kiss his hand and then it was time to go. Our nurse was fab and really supportive. She sent us off to get some fresh air and food and had our phone numbers in case of any problems. I was still calmer than I'd expected me to be. We took the opportunity to ring the girls who were having a fabulous time and were about to go to the park.

After we got some food and a latte we went back to H's cubicle to wait to be told that he was waking up. We only seemed to back a few minutes when the nurse came for me, I had been quite selfish and wanted to take him and pick him up as only one of us was allowed to go. When I got there he was already awake and having a cuddle with a nurse. I have never been so glad to have a cuddle with my little man, he seemed really clammy and quite upset but he soon calmed down after a mummy cuddle. 

After the nurse's had handed over we headed back to the ward. After about 20 minuets we were told that we could give him some water. H hates having water out of a bottle as he expects milk and then is disappointed to find that its water, but after being nil by mouth for so long he drank his whole 9oz bottle of water in a few minutes, I've never seen anyone so thirsty. He soon fell back to sleep after he'd had a drink and seemed to sleep most of the afternoon. An hour or so after he had come back to the ward they said that when he woke up he could have some milk, which again he guzzled down. 


Everything seemed to be going great until I went to change his nappy and found something sticking out of the surgical hole. I panicked and thought that it was some of his insides coming out. But luckily it was just me overreacting and it turns our that it was gauze that they put in where the abscess had been to help soak up more of the gunk that they had drained off it. 
At 5pm we were told that they were happy with him and we could be discharged at 6pm, four hours after he came back from theater. The last hour dragged and felt like it would never end, by now the lack of sleep and hard uncomfortable chairs were taking there toll on me and I was definitely ready for home.
At half 6 we walked out the door with some stronger antibiotics, 8pm we finally got home. We put the girls to bed and decided that we deserved a take-away. As soon as we'd eaten we went to bed and the girls very kindly gave us a lie in till half 7 the next morning.

I was really shocked by the size of the incision and worried how I was going to keep it clean and not get it reinfected. But cleaning it with cotton wool and cool boiled water as well as the antibiotics seem to work.
A week later I'm glad to say that it's healing nicely and he seems fine, I just hope that it doesn't come back and we have to go through all that again.

Have your little ones ever had anything similar?

Thanks for reading 
Elly xx 

2 comments:

  1. Ahh this post really pulled at my heart strings, you handled it all very well.
    Its horrible when little ones are poorly, never mind in hospital! Its hard for us, as parents, to be so out of control where our babies are concerned. I hope he has healed well x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, sorry only just seen your comment! He seems all better now, its completely healed and there's no signs of it coming back so fingers crossed that's it and hopefully no more hospital visits for us xx

      Delete