My Baby Is ill – Part 2 can be read here

Thomas came back from the lumber puncture exhausted, Nathan said that he put up a huge fight, he hated being held down. It wasnt suprising that as soon as Thomas came back to the room he fell asleep. Shortly after the doctor came back with good news the lumber puncture came back all clear nothing unusual found. Over the following couple of days Thomas started to improve, the antibiotics kicked in and he became much brighter. His oxygen dependency began to decrease to the point where he only needed additional oxygen at night time when he slept – I was told that when you sleep your oxygen levels naturally dip, but Thomas’ dipped too much.

Overall Thomas was back to his nornal self he played during the day in the playroom on the ward, loved exploring the ward and all the attention from people coming in and out of his room the only time you would think he was ill was at night when he was asleep. He was off the drip and his appetite growing every day.  The antibiotics had helped him to fight off the 2nd infection which this day is still undiagnosed. His Bronchilitus cough had disappeared he just needed a little extra help at night. After 7 nights in hospital Thomas’ lungs improved enough to sustain a brilliant oxygen level his lungs were back to normal, we went home on the 8th day of being in hospital.

It was fantastic to finally be home Thomas was still a little tired at first and slept more then usual but he soon got back to his usual happy self, full of fun and smiles. Thomas being ill was a rollercoaster of emotions, I still wonder what the 2nd infection was as all the tests had come back negative. Swine Flu plays on the back of my mind as there has been several cases of Swine Flu in my area and it does seem to affect the very young – We are so grateful to the doctor called James who looked after Thomas when he first went in, putting him on antibiotics as soon as we got onto the childrens ward – we believe this one action saved his life.

My Baby Is ill – Part 1 can be read here

It was all sureal I was in an ambulance with my poorly baby on my knee, we went directly to the childrens A&E where Thomas remained on oxygen and was given a chest X-Ray,and a blood sample were taken.  After around an hour in A&E we were moved up to the childrens unit where Thomas had a canular put into his foot for an instant course of blanket antibiotic the doctors were very worried about him, they didnt want to take any chances or waste any time. The chest X-Ray confirmed that Thomas had Bronchilitius which is the baby version of bronchitus causing the lungs to become infected reducing the amount of oxygen they can provide hence why he needed so much oxygen support.  Bronchilitus is very common in under 1′s especially in the winter months some babies dont need hospitilisation as they are just left with a bad cough that can last up to 8 weeks. But Thomas had a particular bad case of it which was made worse by a mysterious 2nd infection identified by his blood test! The concerning thing was that the doctors didnt know what the 2nd infection was so Thomas continued on the antibiotics and further tests were carried out.

During this time Thomas was given a drip for hydration and nourishment, he was too ill to eat himself the doctors wanted him to concentrate on breating and not have to worry about anything else. It was so upsetting to see my baby lay in a hospital cot with wires coming out of him and an oxygen mask over his face.  I stayed with Thomas every minute of every day and night we were in hospital. The next day the doctor came in she mentioned wanting to give Thomas a Lumber puncture is a needle put into the lower back through to the spine in order to take a sample of fluid from his spine. Fluid from the spine can be tested for all kind of conditions including meningitis -At that moment it hit me that the doctors had considered that the unknown 2nd infection could be meningitis.  I broke down in tears when this dawned on me I felt knumb inside and so helpless. Nathan went in with Thomas for his Lumber puncture, I was advised that it is not a nice procedure to see, my mum and Nathan convinced me to wait outside.

My Baby Is ill – Part 3