long post
My lo was recently admitted to hospital with what they thought was whooping cough.
we brought her in as She was struggling to breathe, sucking her belly under her ribs and her throat was puckering when she was breathing & very pale. She was also refusing food water and her wet nappies were down to half what they normally are. She would get into a fit of coughing and her whole face would turn bright red then almost purple as she tried to recover.
her oxygen was down to 85 in the ED, they had her on oxygen for around 24 hours & 2 inhalers every 2 hours, 6 puffs of blue and 4 puffs of I think it was brown.
She was admitted and began receiving oral antibiotics, IV antibiotics, IV fluids, and a blue inhaler 2puffs every 4 hours, all for the suspected whooping cough.
After 2 days on a ward she caught Norovirus, so she was in a really bad way between throwing up, diarrhoea and how ill she already was prior.
She was weak and listless during her hospital stay, her bloods came back that she has high liver enzymes. Her chest xray showed something but the doctor said a few times its nothing to be concerned with.
The nasal swab tests eventually came back negative for whooping cough, but positive for Human Coronavirus which the doc said wasn’t the same as covid19, it’s the original virus.
Her Dr was really concerned for her as she had both of these viruses.
On day 8 she eventually had some energy when the dr visited the ward, and was off all IV meds/fluids and had taken plenty of fluids (750ml in 24 hours) and was interested in food again. So we were discharged with an appointment to check Liver enzymes in 4 months time.
We are home 3 days, and her energy levels are really low. she seems almost weak. She is interested in food and is drinking enough but not what she normally would have. She was a little fish for water prior to this illness. Her stool was normal until this morning she had diarrhoea 3 times. Over the past 3 nights she has thrown up two nights, and it was a huge amount of vomit, almost everything she had eaten for the day. She also has a little fungal circle on her cheek, my husband suffers with this regularly but has no flare ups at present.
A bit of background, she has had viruses almost non stop since last October(we are now March) her twin brother also caught most of these viruses but fought them much better and would be over them in 2-3 days. My daughter would take 1-2 weeks to recover and then be hit again with something.
in January she was treated at home for bronchiolitis, the doctor gave a 7 day antibiotic and i requested an extra 3 days. She still wasn’t 100% and was still coughing after the antibiotics so two weeks later i returned and we discussed the possibility of asthma or allergies. My GP put her on a blue inhaler 2puffs twice a day and piriton 2.5mls twice a day. We didn’t see a huge difference, and continued this for 5 weeks, until her hospital admission.
So my main concern is that there is some underlying illness, like an autoimmune like coeliac disease causing a low immune system or something more sinister going on with her.
My mammy gut is saying there is something definitely up.
her stomach is quite bloated since she was admitted. She has lost some weight and as i said previously she is lethargic.
This is a child who walked at 11mo and was climbing sofas and chairs by 12mo, she was a live wire and such a busy little baby.
I used to laugh thinking she had done at least 10,000 steps by midday!
Should I be worried and investigate the possibility of something more sinister going on, or is this just a normal recovery for a toddler who endured both of those viruses at once?
should I sit on it for another week to see if she gets back to herself fully?
I am hesitant to return to the ED as she has no urgent symptoms and she absolutely hated the whole hospital thing with a passion!
Tia