Friday, May 6, 2011

Poorly baba

We had a bit of a bad weekend easter weekend.
Bailey had been poorly with a temperature from Friday night but with Tylenol it kept coming down and other than a little more fussy she seemed fine.
Sunday morning it was still around so I call the doctors for second opinion, they asked alot of questions and other than a temperature she had no symptoms.
Roll on Sunday evening and we thought we take her for a walk as we'd been inside & stuffy all day, put her in the bjorn and she went crazy crying, pulling her ears, so unlike her she loves the bjorn, so I just looked at her felt her head ears then felt her soft spot it was bulging, panicked!
Call doctors again, they said get to the hospital.
Got to children's hospital 9.15pm, checked us in she seemed fine but bulging soft spot even her temp was down as we'd not ling given her the Tylenol, into the room the did some checks and because she was smiling and engaging not cranky and upset she seemed fine, so they were unsure what tests to do, the decided urine test first so when we too diaper and onsie off, we noticed an angry rash that hadn't been there an hour earlier, then another doctor came in and they decided on a few more tests.
Bloods- and fit an iv line, on a baby this is no easy task for the nurse or the baby 3 of us holding her Steve trying to talk to her and soothe her, I was crying, she was sobbing, screaming oh my it was awful.
Then they decide to rule out meningitis they need a lumbar puncture, fir thus they recommended we leave the room, which in itself was traumatic, the waiting room was just awful as waiting rooms are and seemed to be completely sound proof, when we got back she was really upset and had thrown up, I fed her to calm her and age went to sleep.
All test came back and yes she had a virus but it was not meningitis, we could go home and visit the doctor the next day.
Home at 2.30am she slept after a feed, three hour later age was awake crying very upset unconsolable, I check her temperature, it was really low, she felt cold - wrapped her against me googled it - possibly shock!
Call doctor again talked it through he said he'd book appointment for 8.30am, and to call if it dropped again, checked it 10 mins later as she was asleep it had dropped again rang again, check the other ear sometimes a bit of wax can give off readings, other ear completely normal!
I do think she had become cold in the night, you know when your over tired, bit of an ordeal, you need an extra blanket.
We went to the doctors and they think she had Roseola virus. Would be fine in a few days, which made us feel bad all she was put through for nothing really and we did that to her, but then in the next breath I think meningitis is not to be messed with and better to be safe and rule it out for sure!

Moral of the story, check temp in both ears or better still try getting temp two different ways, I'm not keen on rectally (not easy to get if baby is already upset and wriggling!) so we've ordered the temporal lobe thermometer.

Thankfully she is a lot better although has now taken to waking in the night, I cannot complain as she was a 10 hours a night sleeper from 6 weeks old! But oh my I feel it when she wakes now as I'm not use to it! All my friends laugh when I say I've had a bad night! Welcome to parenthood.

Checks for meningitis- include: but not necessarily all together,
Temperature
Vomiting
Bulging soft spot
Aversion to light
Cannot bend neck to put chin to chest
A rash that when you roll a glass over it the spots do NOT disappear
Babies don't like being handled.
Reference: http://children.webmd.com/vaccines/tc/meningitis-symptoms
Be an aware parent x

1 comment:

  1. Oh my gosh, how frightening! No matter how many kids you have had or trips to the ER they are all traumatic! Glad she is better and its ALWAYS better safe than sorry!

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