The night before he had been a bit unwell and his breathing was slightly panty so I took him into the local childrens ward. He has open access to the hospital ward so we don't have to go through A and E. The doctor took a look at him and said his chest was clear and that he probably had a cold virus. So we took him home again and dosed him up with paracetamol. The next morning he panted his way through four hours and I just knew he wasn't right, his temp had gone up and he was looking quite poorly. We contacted the hospital again and they told us to bring him in. We expected a quick look over and to be sent home with antibiotics, but this wasn't the case. His heartrate was up, he had a temperature and he was working hard at his breathing, he had developed a chest infection.
Next thing a very nice and very cautious doctor had him in a cubicle, suggesting oxygen and catherters, Zack by this time was panting away looking awful. The doctor asked if we use a suctioning machine at home for his secretions, errr no he can sort them out for himself I told her. So she instructed the nurse to get a sample of his saliva to see if he had a bacteria infection that was causing bronchilitus.
Doctor leaves the room. Nurse comes back with a tube.
"Where's that going?" I asked, "Down his nose" the nurse replied with a smile....."Mmmmm good luck with that because he's going to go crazy" She just smiled at me. Oh the chaos. She tried one nostril no secretions (well duh, that's because he swallows them), she tries the next nostril, by this time Zack went mad his arm came up and he started whacking her out of the way. He can move his limbs when he wants, I swear if he was bigger he would have smacked her across the face. The nurse looked up "Oooh he doesn't like that does he and I couldn't get anything. Mmm, yes, I think we'll leave it I'll let the doctor know." She left the room pretty quickly.
After that they didn't attempt to put the oxygen prongs up his nose instead they just put an oxygen mask by his face. Then a junior doctor came in to put a catheter in his hand. I did ask the reason for this and she said it was in case they needed to put fluids in to him, they also needed to get some blood. I wasn't overly happy about it, I didn't want him any more distressed and I thought they were going a bit over the top. By this time Dan had gone home to get some clothes and other Zack items as he was going to stop the night. They proceeded to get the needle in Zack's hand. I got upset. The doctor turned round and asked if I was okay and said it's alright, it's only a little needle, he's only upset because we are holding his arm down. It wasn't the needle, I was tired, I only had two hours sleep in the last 48 hours and I was upset that Zack was ill. The nurse who was helping the doctor was lovely she said that I was just upset because Zack was ill. In the end they managed to get the bloods off him but the catherter couldn't stay in place so they took it out. They agreed that they wouldn't try it again unless he really needed it. I didn't think he needed it in the first place!
A chest Xray was also taken. When the results came back it turned out he had some shadowing on his lungs and infection showing up in his bloods. They said that it was likely that he caught a virus which had turned into a chest infection and they started him with oral antibiotics. By the time Dan come back and I left to go home Zack was a lot more comfortable and sleeping. I went home, got a shower and slept through the constant drum of fireworks.
When I got in the next day The Pants seemed a bit better and fortunately the consultant whom Zack is under was about and came to take a look at him. He had only taken two steps into the room and said to us, "Do you think he's well enough to go home?" He checked him over, looked at his monitor and asked us how his saturation levels had been (amount of oxygen he was taking in). We said they had never really fallen below 85, he said, mmm sometimes staff end up treating the numbers on the machine rather than the patient and he didn't need the oxygen. He assured us it was a chest infection and that like he has said before he will get quite a few of these. Regardless of Zack's problems all babies suffer in the first year, which is often the worst. The second year is tough again but a bit easier and as they get older their immunity builds up so it gets easier. We were allowed home. Zack was still a bit panty all day and slept through most of it but I'm not surprised given he had a rough time. He has some antibiotics to take and they seem to be doing the trick. Only a few more months to go and we should be away from all this winter cold stuff, roll on spring that's all I can say.
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