Worried about my DD. Please help - particularly anyone medical!

[CandleFlamey]

DD has been very unwell now for a week. It began with a bad cough, but has since worsened. She hasn’t had an appetite in a week, and has just managed to sip water and have small bits of food here and there, but very minimal.

The Doctor today said she has an infection in one of her lungs and prescribed her antibiotics. She has been feeling increasingly nauseous as the week has progressed and tonight has been gagging over the toilet, but very little to bring up. Pretty much just bile. She is back in bed now, but I don’t know how long that’ll last, as she hasn’t been sleeping well. She has pains in her side due to the infected lung, she hasn’t been eating much, and now the vomiting.

My plan is to take her to the GP first thing. Or does she need to be seen sooner? I am happy to sit awake and watch her through the night. She is exhausted, bless her.

sorry, not an AIBU.

How old is she? Is she urinating? Temp?

She is 12. She said she is urinating when I asked her earlier. She drank a reasonable amount today. Not loads, but frequent sips.

She has had a temp off and on, for the last week, up to 39.5. This has been controlled with calpol. She doesn’t currently have a temp

Temperature has been more on than off though.

If she has thrown up she might not have been able to take in any of the antibiotic. Did gp listen to her chest?

My gut would probably be to sit with her overnight and call either gp or go to an and e in morning.

Obviously I can't say for sure (and I'm not medical) but it sounds like the COVID my family and I have all had recently. I think personally I would give it a couple of days to see how she responds to the antibiotics. But of course if you're worried or if anything gets worse then ring 111.

GP listened to her chest and then did a tapping thing, and said one lung sounded “dull”. This, along with the listening through the stethoscope, seemed to be the basis for the conclusion it’s an infection.

She went on Wednesday last week, and today.

180+ kids are off in my DD’s primary at the moment with a horrible respiratory infection that seems to be plaguing the school.
Follow your gut, OP. If something is telling you that there’s more to this than what the GP said then get her to out of hours GP. I don’t want to suggest A&E because I’m not medical and I’m sure a HCP will be on shortly to say whether it meets the A&E threshold but anyway, if you’re not satisfied then get her seen! I’d much rather waste a couple of hours unnecessarily than ignore my motherly instinct and end up regretting it later (Lord forbid). 💚

Most antibiotics need to be taken with food to avoid the side effects of nausea and vomiting.
https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/nausea/foods-doxycline-antibiotics-avoid-nausea

Thank you @SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice

ive just read this about DD’s antibiotic. She took it at 11.30am and then 9.30pm. She has felt nausea and lack of appetite for the last few days, but this is definitely worse. And she did take it on an empty stomach, as the label said “take with or without food”.

If the medicine caused the sickness, is it likely that she won’t be sick again overnight? Now that it’s out of her system?

Sounds like flu. My DD (15) has been very similar, struggling to breath, nothing to eat for 4 days now and only keeping fluids down. One minute she has a sky high temp then she’s fine and we have been given antibiotics for her chest. A&E and out of hours are like war zones just now with cases especially with kids that age.

I'd take her back tomorrow since she seems to have worsened.

Watch her closely overnight and keep an eye out for sepsis

high temperature or low temperature
rapid heart rate/rapid breathing
confusion
chills/shivering
reduced urine output
skin rash

Any of those symptoms and I'd take her to A&E without a seconds thought.

Hope she starts feeling better soon xx

Has the sickness started since she started taking antibiotics?

Few years ago I had really bad tonsillitis and couldn't eat anything as it was agony. Dr. gave me Penicillin that I took on a very empty stomach and that made me so sick for days, was worse than being pregnant, couldn't keep anything down and had to suck on ice cubes in an attempt to keep my fluids up.

If you're worried, i would be tempted to call NHS24 rather than waiting until tomorrow though.

Is it best to stay awake and observe her tonight? I havent slept much in a week, but think I probably shouldn’t sleep.

I don’t know as she was already nauseous beforehand and the antibiotics have made it worse. The added irritation could last for days.

You can try the next dose with a small snack?

But if she doesn’t keep that down, I would take her back to the GP or to A&E as she may need IV antibiotics, glucose and hydration.

Thank you @SugarandSpiceandAllThingsNaice - this sounds like a good idea.

I’m so tired. Really struggling to stay awake. 😭 Any tips?

…

I usually do newborn rules when my kids are seriously ill - phone alarms every 2 hours. Sleep in her room, have thermometer on hand.

Hi OP,

Sorry your daughter isn’t feeling very well. There’s loads of awful stuff going round at the moment.

1. Poor appetite for a week is v common with infection even viral. As long as she’s keeping down fluids and passing urine then she won’t become dehydrated. Lots of sips little and often especially if nauseated. If you’re particularly worried about getting calories in her ice cream or anything that she loves - don’t worry too much about it being healthy rn

2. sounds like she’s had 2 doses of antibiotics for chest infection - it will take probably a 2-3 days until she starts feeling better but some people even need a further course. If she vomited more than 2-3 hours after taking the antibiotic - it has probably been absorbed.

Materially the only thing that seems to have changed since you saw a medical professsional is very little vomiting / gagging and a pain in her side - (difficult anatomically exactly where - is it upper back, front? This could be a pain from coughing - which is very common or like you suggested from the infection itself)How is her pain now - is she able to sleep? It would be a red flag for me if unable to sleep because of the pain.

If she goes to A&E now, they might do some blood tests, they might do an x-Ray (all of which may point to an infection that needs treatment with antibiotics she has already got). They may give her some antisickness to help with gagging. They would only start a drip if they thought she was dehydrated or if they thought she needs the antibiotics through the drip because she was so unwell. My gut feeling from what you’ve told us is that they may just send her home to complete the antibiotics she’s got and then you’ve then had a night of poor rest waiting in A&E

Were you happy with the GPs assessment of her ? Or do you feel like there was something that was missed or not paid attention to or has suddenly changed? GPS usually give advice for children to go to A&E if suddenly become much worse. So I suppose only you can make the assessment of if this is a sudden deterioration or if can wait for the morning.

If we think it’s a chest infection a portable oxygen saturation monitor may be useful to get from Amazon prime. That will reassure you her oxygen and heart rate is ok over the coming days- just be aware that heart rate in children is naturally higher. Also you mentioned calpol, I would get some ibuprofen too - spacing 3hrs from calpol so she’s always covered with for temperature, but might help with pain if it’s inflammatory from the infection.

From your updates sounds like she’s asleep now - I can’t see the benefit of you staying awake to watch her especially if you’ve had no sleep. If you think she needs to be that closely monitored then I would take her to A&E and let her be monitored by a professional -otherwise if she’s settled now and you’re happy with how she looks now I’d get as much sleep as you can - if you want to be close - perhaps sleep in her room or in bed with her if you can fit in and it won’t disturb her too much. At 12 I would expect if she was sick overnight or felt worse she would wake up and be able to communicate that with you unless any other issues underlying. I agree with @Kirbert2 list of reasons to take her in the morning but realistically unless you’re going to be checking her breathing / temperature / heart rate with an actual machine you’re not going to get any objective data overnight anyway.