my perfect littlr girl is in hospital with meningitis

[StopEatingThatMud]

And I'm really really scared.

Is anyone up to hold my hand and tell me it'll be ok?

Saying prayers for B, and for you & your DH x

Wishing for the best for you and B x

Thinking of you all and hoping B recovers quickly and fully xo

Best wishes for a speedy recovery for B - thinking of you both. Look after yourself as well.

Wishing a full and speedy recovery to b and lots of strength to all her family. You are in my thoughts

Hugs from another Mum who's been there. My DS was critically ill with a ruptured brain aneurysm last year - he had been tested for meningitis etc - I want you to know that he plays cricket for his school, local team and district, plus athletics, dance and football. And is studying for the 11+. It is 17 months since we were told he may not make the night. Hang on in there. Every single prayer and kind thought will carry you along. Make sure you eat and drink. Children are far more resilient than us. Lots of hugs.

I'm also shooting up a little prayer for B, you and your family. Hoping and praying for the best outcome for her and you all, a super speedy recovery and peace in the meantime xx

Thinking of you OP and sending all my best wishes for B's speedy recovery. xx

To dear little B
Keep fighting.

To B's family, there but for the grace...I wish you strength and hope that B makes a good and speedy recovery. Try and eat something and take it in turns to get some rest. X

Well yet again you've all gone and buggered up that nest of vipers reputation you've got yourself haven't you?!

DP is home for the night so just me and little lady here now. She had some milk earlier, never thought I'd be so excited about that again past about 2 days old! Admittedly she chucked some if it back up ah hour later, but its a start. She'd lost 400g when they weighed her yesterday from her 1 year check, 2 weeks ago, so anything that stays down has to be helping.

Tonights looking like a long night, she has an hour long antibiotic transfer at midnight, will need a new IV fluid bag about 2 and no doubt there'll be regular obs too. So please excuse me if I'm on here rambling away at 3am, I know I do go on, I find it very cathartic and honestly don't expect proper responses!

Thinking of you. Stay strong. Positive thoughts.

Soooo sorry ur dd is so unwell :( you're both still in my thoughts and I'm keeping my fingers snd toes crossed that she turns the corner and starts to recover and goes back home where she belongs !!

It will be a long night, with lots of sets of obs. You won't get a lot of sleep, but the adrenalin will keep you going for as long as needed - weeks, in our case. If you can manage it, be interested in all the procedures and checks - looking at it from an 'isn't this fascinating' point of view really helped me. But equally, I was an irritable old cow from lack of sleep - this is normal, the nurses said, so don't beat yourself up if you snap at anyone. Your DD sounds as though she's a tough cookie, if she's having milk already that's fantastic. I will be thinking of you tonight and in the morning - keep posting.

OP, you're doing well.

Strength and hugs for you and little B xx

Thinking of you and hoping she has a good night.

Thinking of you, it must be so stressful, hope little B picks up soon. x

Thinking of you and B tonight. x

Wishing you all well and sending positive thoughts. x

that sounds really promising... the nights will be long, but also reassuring (you'll know what I mean when you get home and there is no one doing any obs). Have they found anything else in the LP that would explain the sickness beforehand?
And they may already have done this, but if not and when you think she's up to it, ask staff to find her some sensory lights / sounds etc; they're fab for the wee ones and very soothing for mums and dads as well

take care & gentle hugs for you both

another mum whose been right where you are now too - my ds had pneumoccoccal meningitis just after his 3rd birthday and spent a long time in hospital....

i wont bore you with the whole story but if you want some hand holding and to be told it can be ok, then i can do that!

pm me if you want to talk, or ask anything, i dont want to bore you or go into too much detail as i think each case can have different outcomes, but i hope the outcome for you is a positive and good one and i wish you all the luck in the world.
x

This sounds positive OP, having some milk is good, even if it didn't all stay down. When DS had meningitis he was up and down for a good few days, so expect that. I got so wrapped up in the medical details - if his SATS were even slightly down, or his temperature was a tiny bit up, it would send me spiralling back in to panic mode. I pored over those charts and was obsessed with the machine he was hooked up to. Eventually (days in to the whole experience) a nurse explained to me that 'up and down' was a normal course for the illness to follow, and I started to calm down a little.

Someone else has said this but do try to eat if you can (and definitely get a huge bottle of water for your room). Adrenalin will keep you going for a few days, I managed a week on probably no more than an hour's unbroken sleep at any point, but lack of food made me feel really dreadful. Get someone to bring you in some really good handcream - after a few days my knuckles were bleeding from all of the washing and alcohol gel.

The one thing that I wish I'd done is to write down a little of what happened when my DS was ill. I know this sounds odd, but a year later I still think about it constantly, but my recollection of events is quite confused. I remember going to out of hours (2am ish?), being admitted to a paediatric ward, a consultant being paged in the middle of the night, a lumbar punture, it getting light, a second lumbar puncture, antibiotics, days in PICU, DS being a bit better, days back on the ward, various doctors, nurses etc. But in such a jumbled way. I wish that I'd written down even rough times of when things happened, when drugs were given, what the doctors and nurses names were. DH and I can't really agree on most of how it happened! It might have helped me to make sense of it all now. Maybe this is just how I operate, but I thought I'd mention it incase you felt it relevant to you too - sorry, I don't mean to harp on about my experience when you are right in the middle of this, so feel free to completely ignore me if it's not your style.

Sending all best wishes to you and your DD; keep posting, I will keep checking to see how you are doing.

Thinking of you all x

Thinking of you and your little girl xx

Glad she was able to have some milk. Still thinking of you all. Get well little B x

Her taking fluid is a good sign, I know what you mean about the excitement at the smallest amounts. When DS was 8 weeks old I was made up when he took 5ml via NG tube!

If its anything like our hospital the night staff are very good at getting things done quietly so hopefully you will manage to sleep through some things. Don't feel guilty if you do (I always do!) you need your rest xx

WhenI I agree with keeping some sort of record, as daft as it seemed when nurses suggested taking photos of DS is HDU now I find it comforting to have a record of what happened, I also wrote it all down soon after which I found quiet a good release.