I just want to vent I suppose after possibly one of the worst weeks of my life. If anybody wants to share similar experiences that would be great?
So my perfect little baby is 3 weeks old. Last Sunday he came down with the sniffles, thought nothing off it really as myself, my partner and 4 year old had also had a cold the week prior. Sunday evening I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything we could be doing so rang 111 who advised us to head down to A&E as after a video call they thought his breathing looked a little concerning.
I had been checking his temperature all day at home and it was around 37.6, a little higher than usual but not an actual fever. Props to the hospital as they saw us immediately, checked his observations and his temperature was 38.2. Now I know this is classed as a high temperature but I really put it down to him being in the car with the heaters on and a blanket. But they admitted us anyway, I wasn’t complaining as I really wanted him to get the care he needed if he needed it. Every time they checked it again after that it was between 37.1 and 37.6 hence why I’m still convinced he was too hot from the car.
Basically since Sunday night he’s had 2 cannulas in, 2 lots of blood taken, heel prick tests, urine tests, chest X-ray, blood sugar levels checked and the worst of all: a lumbar puncture, which had to be done twice as the first failed 🥺 So all in all we were at the hospital for four days before being allowed to go home because ALL of the results came back absolutely fine, thank goodness.
They still want to treat it as possible
meningitis though so he needs to go back once a day for antibiotics through IV for 6 days. We went yesterday for his first lot after being placed on home leave and it was all going really well until they did the flush. The machine came up saying it would take 45 minutes but after my partner made a comment about getting home to do my 4 year olds dinner she somehow sped it up to 10 mins, nobody else during the week has done this at all.
3 mins in and he started SCREAMING and I really mean it was unlike any baby cry I’d ever heard before. I knew something was wrong so called her over. I initially was angry because she said he was screaming because it felt cold going in, she turned the machine off and looked at his hand.. it was bright red, burnt in places and swollen almost to triple it’s size. The cannula had come out of the vein and the medication was leaking in to his tissues.
I was mortified and almost had to be sick myself, he was immediately fine as soon as the machine turned off but it was frightening to look at. They had four senior doctors over to check him and I could tell they were trying to tread carefully as though they’d done something wrong and they were expecting me to kick off. Should I have? Maybe, as nobody checked his cannula and I think for a baby who cannot speak for themselves or say when something feels wrong they should be constantly checking. But anyway, I was too concerned about him to even be angry.
They sent us home with advise on what to look for if it gets worse but we still need to go back, get another cannula and have the antibiotics again.. it’s like a never ending nightmare 😩 I feel very fortunate there isn’t anything serious wrong with my baby but can’t help but wonder if it’s all necessary to put him through if his results are all completely clear.
Anyway, if you’ve got this far thank you for reading! I just feel like I needed to get it all out.