An Unexpected Hospital Trip {Ordinary Moments Week 30 – 26/07/15}

At 4am on Saturday morning we were woken by J making a weird coughing choking sort of noise and what I can only describe as the sound of her struggling to breathe. Our immediate response was to quickly throw some clothes on and head to the nearest A&E not sure what on earth was happening. After all she had gone to bed fine and this or similar had never happened before

We were sent straight through and into the high priority bed where they ran her observations and told us her oxygen levels were 99-100% which was good news. J normally has good health and although she has had an inhaler in the past she’s not needed to use it this year

After her first set of obs she was walking around being her happy normal self and appeared to have no further obvious issues when she did the same cough again and the nurse raised an eyebrow. After a short while the shift emergency doctor came to see us and said the cough sounded like Croup which is apparently common in 2-6 year olds but it’s normally a Winter month thing

This week J was the third child to come in with the same symptoms and he believed it was doing the rounds. I had never heard of Croup before but I was advised they can’t do much about it unless the child is actively struggling to breathe in which case they can administer something to help free the airways

We were told to head home and monitor it and if we feel she gets worse in terms of breathing at night then to come back and the notes will enable us to go through and seek the appropriate attention and medication. J was likely to have a sore sounding voice and throat in the day but possible wheezing and the barking cough at night for 4-5 days

I am currently typing this on Saturday night, night 2, and J has been in bed for an hour. The hubster is out at the moment and I am sat in silence and refuse to have the TV or even music on so I can hear if anything changes or she starts coughing or wheezing again to an extent that I need to seek medical attention. We haven’t had a monitor in her room for months and I’m half tempted to send him out to retrieve it from my mums house to enable me to constantly hear her and be alert if she needs me or sounds like she’s experiencing difficulties – he will probably tell me I’m worrying for no good reason!

Today a friend asked what goes through our mind and we you cope when your child is sick or you don’t know what’s going on. I think all parents will feel a similar way to us when the hubster summed it up by saying

“you just go on  autopilot, hoping for the best and convincing yourself that everything is going to be alright and that your child will come out the other side fighting fit, regardless of how bad the situation is”

One of my worst traits is immediately panicking when I think something’s wrong with J but thankfully the hubster is pretty level headed in these situations and having him by my side at 430am this morning in A&E really helped. I never show her my worry, just the hubster, but sometimes you need someone to remain neutral in the situation and bring you to a normal level and ensure your emotions aren’t fed to your child

I’m hopeful we won’t be there again tonight and that she makes a super speedy recovery but after a nap this afternoon she woke badly and her throat was pretty rough too so I’m not totally confident. We were told it might be a few days of this and she may well get worse in the night as she may not have peaked

Whatever happens the main thing is that the hubster and I will be there to make sure our girl is okay and gets everything she needs to aid that recovery process