My 18 day old ds is in hospital

[BlackLetterDay]

With some kind of infection . This has probably been the scariest 48 hours in my life. Poor ds started feeling warm on wednesday night, definate fever by thursday 4am so phoned NHS direct who told me to hang on and take him to my GP when surgery opened . Sent straight to A&E do not pass go... his temp was 38.6 at GP, 39.7 by the time we got to A&E. Obviously we were shitting our pants by this time, poor ds was now very hot and fractious although thankfully showing no other symptoms and still feeding etc. A&e were very good and he had lumbar puncture/blood tests etc sharpish, given AB's just in case also calpol and transfered to the childrens ward.

His temperature thankfully responded to the calpol and has been up and down ever since. Mostly down of late, the initial results from the blood tests showed raised crp?? of 58 (I think the dr said 0-10 was normal) and slightly elevated neutrophils. Apparently this indicates early bacterial or viral infection??? The initial results from the lumbar puncture showed wbc present in the csf, but the dr was less worried about this as apparently there were also rbc present, so he thought it was likely contaminated by full blood. We will get the results of cultures tomorrow afternoon . Ds was very unsettled last night and only wanted to sleep on me, would not sleep in the cot at all.

I have come home tonight as ds has been much better today with lower temperatures. Also older dc's very unsettled (can you tell I'm feeling very guilty about leaving my beautiful boy ).

The Dr's and Nurses have been great and have generally ignored us apart from obs and meds which reassures me that they aren't too worried. Not sure what I'm after with this post but needed to write it down before I collapse and would appreciate any kind of reassurance (or not) or experience.

Flakes

[displayuntilbestbefore]

so sorry to hear you're having such a horrid time

[bethylou]

You poor things. My friend went through a very similar situation earlier this Summer. After a few days they sent them home and he's fine and gorgeous. Hope the outcome is as good for your little one. Good luck.

[ClaireDeLoon]

Sorry don't know what most of the acronyms/medical details mean nor can I give you any reassurance etc but just wanted to wish your DS lots of luck. You sound exhausted I hope you can rest a little.

[teameric]

no experience blackletterday but just wanted to say hope your baby boy is better soon, I'm sure he will be fine.
try to get some rest (although I'm sure this will be easier said than done!)
big hugs for you and your bubba.

[EightiesChick]

Sorry for your awful experience. Try and get some sleep while you can. While 58 is hardly ideal, a raised CRP can go into the hundreds ask me how I know - me not DC fortunately - so there is lots to be positive about. Do take care of yourself. Can you get help from family/friends with the other DC?

[Monty100]

Sorry ds is poorly. Hope he gets better very soon. You must be at your wits end. Will be hoping for a very positive update very soon.

[EightiesChick]

I meant several hundreds there, too, not one hundred and odd. So your DS is holding his own, tiny little one that he is [gooey over newborn emoticon]

[winnybella]

So sorry, it must be horrible for you.
When my DD was 3 weeks old, she woke up with a slight temperature, only 38, but her doctor told me over the phone to go to the A&E as could be meningitis, so off we went. She stayed for a day and a half, had 3 blood tests,fever up and down (although there was some issue with two thermometers giving different readings, so not sure really how high it ever got).She also had a green liquid stools. Anyway,they said it could have been a little gastro, but they have to take it seriously at this age.
I know how awful you must feel, but he is in good hands and they can get infections as we do and it doesn't necessarily have to be v.serious.
Try to get a few hours of sleep and please let us know how is he feeling tomorrow!

[Taramuddle]

Last week our ds had v high temp, (though he is 7 months) went up and down for 4 days from 38.2 to 40.2 (scary middle of the night temp). We rang nhs helpline who said that we wouldn't get a call for 6 hrs, phoned out of hours Dr & nurse told us to keep going with calpol/ibuprofen. Wonder if we had taken him in to A&E if we'd have had a similar experience.
He was the same no other symptoms apart from being fractious & was still feeding. Eventually his temp just returned to normal, had a slightly snotty nose & that was that...
Hope your bubba gets better soon too & it was also just a nasty virus. Try to get some shut eye.

[BlackLetterDay]

Thank you for all of your messages just off on my way to bed (well after pumping, bloody bf is messed up too ). Apparently ds is sleeping well for daddy and slugging back the feeds, typical.

Thanks Lenin, yes they take it very seriously with such newbies (which is good). I knew I should have just gone straight to A&E with him though, I have serious issues with listening to my instincts, never bloody trust myself, oh well. Thanks for caring anyway and I will update tomorrow with hopefully good news .

[Monty100]

Hope you wake up to relief and get your baby back home. Nite Nite.

[BlackLetterDay]

Oops sorry eighties chick, how do you know ? (Thanks for that btw, I have no idea what crp is, well I know it is c-reactive protein but god knows what it means lol) a little knowledge is no use at all

[ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave]

You poor thing. Glad to hear that he's responding well in hospital and hope that you get some definite diagnosis soon.

[LaDiDaDi]

How scary for you but it sounds as though he is getting better.

I would complain about nhs suggesting that you wait from 4am until your GP surgery opened. A baby as young as your ds with a high temperature is potentially a very sick child indeed and although your ds has not come to any harm I think that someone made a significant error in not telling you to take him straight to A+E when you made that phone call. If you don't feel able to complain then do ask the children's ward that your ds is on to take things further on your behalf.

[BlackLetterDay]

I agree ladida, NHS direct are very random and deep down I knew I should have been at the a&e stage. They have been crap in the past too, told me my 6 month olds temp of 40+ wasdown to teething, will mention it to the dr.

[duchesse]

Gosh, I hope your little son is soon on the mend. My baby had a lumbar puncture soon after she was born in August with an unknown infection. Her crp wotsit levels were also elevated until the antibiotics had done their job 5 days later. They explained at the time that the levels themselves are fairly meaningless, it's the evolution in the them they are interested in. They like to see them going down rather than up, and they presume no more infection once they've got down below 10. They were very happy once her levels went from over 300 down to 80 in 24 hours, then to 50 the next day.

They seemed extremely competent at looking after her. Is your little one in the neonatal unit or a children's ward? I thought the NNU was fantastic.

[BlackLetterDay]

Thanks all, he was in the childrens ward duchesse, but he is now home yay. Cultures came back negative and his temperature came down so they discharged him, such a relief.

[princessmel]

Thank goodness

ds2 is 21 days old so this is very {shock] for me to imagine.

Have you managed to bf again?? Or were you expressing?

[princessmel]

[EightiesChick]

So glad to hear your little DS is home! Hope you are able to relax a bit now and that other people are looking after you.

BlackLetterDay I was seriously ill in hospital a few years ago and they tested my CRP every day. Basically it indicates the level of inflammation /infection in the body, so if it's high and going up they know something is wrong. I got into the 400s before it started coming down. My doctor said he wanted it below 35 before I could go home. It's a complicated story which I won't bore you with but I'm OK now

TBH, I would not trust NHS Direct with any remotely serious medical problem in a child and will be taking my DS straight to hospital if it comes to that, based on my experiences with them. Other people disagree with me, and have done on here in the past, but better to be safe than sorry I think.

[Monty100]

Thank goodness bld.

Can you give him a little cuddle from me?

[lobsters]

Blackletterday - so pleased your DS is better and back home. Reading your post gave me goosebumps, at 21 days DD seemed unwell, I rang NHS Direct, but in my case they sent an ambulance for me. It was the scariest 48 hours of my life. In our case it turned out she had late onset group B Strep. She was in for a week on anti biotics.

The only thing I would add is that the shock might hit you later. While DD was in hosp, I was auto pilot, just trying to keep focussed on making sure she got the best treatment. I only dealt with my feelings in the weeks and months afterwards.

However I do now have a happy, healthy, beautiful 10 month old, who thankfully seems to have escaped any long lasting effect.

[Taramuddle]

So glad bubba is ok now & you are at home together