dd been in hospital for 3 days . Just had to post about it.

[princessmel]

Dd was sick on tues night and on wed morn was very floppy, sleepy and sick.
Went to my gp's and saw the nurse. She was worried and gave dd calpol and wanted us to stay at surgery, in a side room so she could keep an eye on her. temp 38.5.

A doc came to see her and said that she wanted dd to go to hospital.

I was scared and worried. She couldn't stay awake and was grey .Dh was miles away and couldn't be there for a while.

At hospital they did observations and said they wanted to do blood tests, chest x ray and a lumber puncture as they didn't know what was causing her to be so sleepy, plus sick and temp.

They put a cannula in her arm and a drip of fluids and gave her some AB. Dd didn't even cry when they did this as she was so drousy.
They sent some blood off for blood cultures.

Then she had the Lumber Puncture which sounded horrific. They advised me not to go in as I wouldn't be able to do anything and it was distressing to watch. Dh went with her. Small room. I could hear her screaming

Then they said we'd need to stay in. Luckily all my friends were being great and offering to help with ds. Collect him from nursery etc. And my sister.
My parents are on holiday so couldn't be with us.

On thursday we had to go for a fracture clinic appointment, in the same hospital, as the thur before she'd fallen off my bed and fractured her wrist. So they took her off the drip. But that day she didn't drink much and was getting dry skin. Her lips looked sort of purple. She started being sick again too.
So they put a feeding tube in. That was just awful. They had to pin her down and squeeze her face and poke this thing right down into her tummy. She was so upset and scared. dh and I just cried after. He felt so helpless for her. She was gagging and trying to pull it out.
They put diarolite in the tube every hour, she wouldn't take it orally. At least she (and I) slept better that night as the drip had been removed and didn't keep getting caught up . But she pulled the tube out in the night.

On friday she started the diarrhea. She wanted to eat and drink a tiny bit but this made her poo. I found out after I'd let her eat a pot of jam ( that comes with the toast) with her fingers that sugar makes diarrhea worse. Oh dear. They tested her poo and thats when they found out it was rota-virus. A sort of gastro bug that affects the under 2's quite severely.
The only thing that didn't give her diarrhea was my bm. At least I could do that for her.

They said that she could go home but to expect diarrhea for up to 2 weeks and to keep giving the fluids so she's not dehydrated again. Or we'll have to go back.

I just had to post this as its been so awful. I know lots of babies are ill a lot worse than she was, but it was so frightening for us. I felt guilty about not being with ds and helpless for dd.

She is really thin now. By the end of it all she was so scared of the nurses and doctors. She just thought they were going to do more tests on her every time she saw them. She had to have the blood tests done twice as they lost the first lot.

Sorry its long.

Princessmel, that sounds so awful for you and her. What a terrible time you have through. Hopefully the worst is over now and you can work towards getting your little girl back to her normal happy self.

I had to post as my youngest ds3 is going into hospital on Monday for an operation. His older brother needed the same operation years ago so we know what we are facing, and it is nothing like as horrendous as what you have just gone through, but I still wish we didn't have to do it (of course).

It is strangely comforting to read another parent's story and know I am not alone at the moment.

Poor you. Loads of sympathy, especially as we went though something very similar a month ago.

My dd2 is 18 months old.

My dh had only the night before left for a skiing holiady for a week.

My dd2 had a febrile convulsion, losing conciousness for more then 10 minutes. I had to call an ambulance and get my neighbours to help with dd1 whom I was bathing at the time.

A three night stay in hospital followed, with horrendous dairrhea and vomiting from DD2. She weighed less then 8 kilos and her ribs stuck out. She was on a drip with medication.

Like you, the only thing I could do for her was breastfeed her and change countless dirty nappies.

The diarrhea lasted a month.

Typical, my dh missed all of this.

Enterol helped, she also needed iron supplements.

Hope your dd gets better soon.

and just to add, I thought we'd never get though it.

But we did, and we're all fine now. and so will you

Thanks dg.

Its was horrible. She was just not herself. Sort of sad. And we were stuck in this isolation room . There was a lovely play room but she wasn't allowed in it. She wouldn't have been up to it the first few days but maybe on friday.

Good luck with your ds opp. I'm sure he'll be fine . It is comforting to read other peoples stories especially if they are happy at the end ,I agree.

Take lots of his fave things. Thank goodness dd had her 'loopy' and 'silky bear' and her thumb.

Belgo , my dd is 19 months. She weighed 22lb when we went in. They didn't weigh her when we left. I wish they had.

It sounds very similar to what dd had. How horrible for you to be alone through it all. Dh had to go home at night but he did come and see us in the day.

xxx

gosh what an awful time she's had..poor little thing .I'm glad ot hear she's on the mend,bet you all fell traunatised now!
at them losing the first blood test

I know. Don't get me started on that side of things.

The cleaner came in to clean up the sick and literally put the mop in the sick (mainly watery fluid) and swooshed it about. Basically spreading it out even more. Then rinsed the mop and left. I dread to think where she rinsed the mop. In my sink?? No disinfectant or similar. Luckily the nurses came in and they cleaned it.

Also lots of, 'I'll get xxxx some water/toast' etc from some of the nurses then off they went and brought nothing. I couldn't get it myself as couldn't leave her.

Others were great. And the HCA were lovely.

Thanks for reading. x

princess mel - what I found particularly awful was that they wouldn't let me hold her as they said that was making her too hot. They also told me breastfeeding her was causing diarrhea

they stripped her naked and made her lie between two ice blocks, she was so delicate and fragile lying there (8 kg is 17 pounds)

the only time I left her was twice to get food, each time I came back I found her crying in her cot with a full dirty nappy.

I was changing 30 dirty nappies or more a day, and the nurses helped with just one or two

I was alone, and totally exhausted from no sleep for those three nights.

But like I said, we got through it, and she won't remember. But i'll never forget, and DD1 remembers seeing her sister having a convulsion

Thats so sad
And ice bolcks sound awful. What did she have??

The nurses once or twice had discussions about whether it was a good idea for me to bf but most of them said 'we don't ever stop bfeeds'. One said 'no, milk is too heavy for her' What!!??

I'm glad your dd doesn't remember. I'm worried dd will be scared when we have to go to the normal docs. She's usually so good. She goes a lot for her ear infections. Saying that, she hasn't had one for a month though, so thats fab for her.

they didn't diagnose anything, but suggested that it was the rota virus.

fortunately the doctors agreed that I should bf, and even said because I was bfing, they didn't have to add potassium to her drip. Potassium is a very strong substance and damages the veins very easily when given through a drip, so I was glad that she avoided that.

Belgo , if you look online about rota virus it says it can cause convulsions aswell as temp, v and d. I bet your dd had this too.
Its the most common cause of gastroenteritis in children.

xx

I don't know if dd had potassium. Hope not.

probably not if you were bfing.

Who looked after your other dd?

PrincessMel - hope she gets better soon x

Thanks margo.

belgo, when she had diarrhea for so long, did you avoid other children for that whole month??

Initially my neighbours looked after my dd1,then my mil, she was great. I live in Belgium, and my family are in England.

Once dd2 no longer had a temperature, I don't think she infectious. The diarrhea took so long to get better because her intestines had been stripped of their natural 'flora' and it took weeks for it to recover (only this week in fact has she started doing solid poos again). Enterol helped with this, and a very bland diet consisting mainly of:

white bread and toast,
plain rice,
plain pasta,
bananas and apple juice
carrot soup

no spices, very little fat, as this all irritates the intestines.

We may have been disappointed in the standard of care, but we are lucky in a way because rota virus kills many small children in developing countries.

I believe there is a new vaccine against the rota virus, I will certainly request it if I have anothere child.

Thanks for that info belgo. dd won't eat any of those things yet.

I have also read that once you get it you're immune to it so can't get it as bad again. Luckily.

My dd had rotavirus aged 2 and was hospitalised. She spent 3 days in isolation. A saving grace for her was that as she was such a fat, round, squidgy little ball, losing weight wasn't a problem , though it was a problem getting the gp to realise she was dehydrated.. She was prescribed all sorts of special foods and special milk on discharge and she refused the lot (after we had spent a fortune!) and was back to normal very quickly.

Mountain girl, we were in isolation too. Felt horrible!

We weren't prescribed any foods just told what to avoid. Where are you? How come you had to buy them??