please come and calm me down about my baby

[zonedout]

Am desperately trying to remain calm but am beginning to lose the battle a little...

ds2 (9 months old) was diagnosed with swine flu on friday (his brother (3.5) had been diagnosed earlier in the week but thank goodness has now made a complete recovery. i decided to collect his tamiflu but hold off giving it to him as ds1 was so violently ill with it and seemed to recover well after stopping the course early. we have been struggling to keep ds2's temp down (goes up to 40.5 just 4 hours after calpol or nurofen then takes about an hour of stripping off, fanning and more calpol/nurofen to bring it down again). last night (about 48 hours in)we noticed his breathing becoming very rapid and some pulling in around his ribs (intracostal recession?) so after speaking to nhs direct and our local paediatric a&e i took him in (he was born 5 weeks premature and had a few stopping breathing episodes in the early months and laryngomalacia)

The paed said he is suffering from a secondary viral infection secondary to the swine flu but they will only admit him if he actually turns blue from the breathing difficulties and to go home and start the tamiflu (which i have done) but also bring him back if he starts vomitting. she called the consultant for advice but he/she (the consultant) didn't actually examine ds.

so here i am with a very poorly 9 month old baby fast asleep on me with this awful laboured breathing and wheezing, watching for signs of blueness and trying to stay calm . have read all these awful stories about swine flu going to the lungs and doing awful damage. aaarrrgh this is so hard. in a way i wish they would just admit him so i know he is safe as can be.

sorry for the waffle, haven't slept for a week since ds1 first got ill.

anyone offer any words of wisdom or similar experiences?

Couldn't leave the thread without giving you very un MN (((()))) as well.

Zonedout, unashamed (())s from me too. I hope you don't get too sick yourself...I know from experience how hard it is to take care or even think of yourself when your baby is ill, but grab rest when you can, drink lots of fluids, take painkillers (and jot down the time, 'cos you'll be too tired to remember).

Such a worrying time, I really hope your ds has a better night and that tomorrow is the start of his recovery - I've certainly heard from friends that their LOs temps start to stabilize downards on the third day, hope its true for your ds too.

As usual, though, don't hesitate to take him back if you're worried again.

How's he doing this morning zonedout?

You were the first thing I thought of this morning zonedout - how is your ds?

If it helps, my DCs all had this very shallow, gaspy breathing when they had measles. It was to do with the temperature and all four of them had it when the temp was at its highest for a day or two, but all made a full recovery.

Very frightening for you especially with one so young. I hope he had a decent night's sleep and is showing some improvement.

Lots of water for the high temperature to stop him overheating, and keep him calm and in a darkened room. Personally I don't like to give calpol as I think the high temperature is part of the body's immune response to the illness which I don't want to impede, but I know others worry about fitting, even though fitting in itself is alarming, but rarely damaging in the long term.

Best of luck.

hope he is much better today when you get chance let us know xx

Have been following this thread, hope he is ok zonedout.

How's your baby?

so sorry to those that have been concerned. dh back at work yesterday having been around to help all weekend and finding myself alone with a back to full health whirlwind of a 3 year old ds1 and a poorly clingy 9 month old i just could not get back on here to update. so sorry, i hate it when other mn'etters (is that what we're called?) don't report back after a worrying post.

anyway, my mum has just nipped ds1 out to the park and ds2 is asleep,and not peeled to me for the first time since thursday night so am back on to report that today he is doing so much better. breathing almost back to normal, temperature much reduced and i am so relieved! he is very tired and has a bit of a dodgy tummy now but i guess that is most likely from all the drugs he has had. it truly felt like it was never going to end.

so a million thanks again for all of the invaluable support, advice and the couple of sneaky ((( ))) and i wish those who are suffering very speedy recoveries...

weirdly i seem to be ok still (lots of false alarms...) as i tend to catch everything going and a million times worse(god help me when i start the methotrexate for my psoriatic arthritis) the only thing i have ever avoided catching from my boys is chicken pox as i had it as a child!

Hurrah! Very relieved and very happy for you and your ds zonedout.

I guess the bright side to your horrendous last few days is that at least you know that your dc's have had sf now rather than when NHS resources are hideously stretched in the winter. I keep thinking that if my 8mo has to get it at all I'd rather now than later just in case further help is needed.

so glad to here that!! Did you have to take him to A&E? Sounds very similar to what happened to my eldest, very scary but they seem to be so ill and then recover within a week in my experience, when someone reacts like that you know you've definately had it at least like we do here. My eldest started Thursday night week before last and I came out with last Tuesday so maybe you've got away with it hope so!

Take care x

Glad to hear Your boys are getting better, on a seperate note my mum has Psoriatic arthritis.

makedo & yummy, funnily enough i have been beginning to wonder now whether it really was sf or just some other very bad virus and have gone from feeling relieved that they have had it to questioning and worrying ... 2 different gp's felt sure it was sf (one per ds when each one started) as did one paed. however the more senior paed we saw in the hospital said she thought it just as likely to be any other virus. i actually feel quite frustrated at not knowing for sure...wish they still swabbed! yummy, we just took him to a&e twice, didn't end up going back on sunday night thank goodness!

ellielou, is your mum on treatment? is she bad with it? sorry for the questions

yeah I wish we'd been swobbed too, although we were told by an A&E doctor and 2 different GP's that we had a flu of some sort most likely swine flu because of the way my little girl reacted so badly with her breathing and the horrid time I had with the flu then chest infection, completely wipes me out.

Just glad he's on the mend what ever it was sounded scary especially him being so small x

zonedout she is on sulfesalazine (?sp) and her symptoms are so much better, dont be sorry

Another relieved post, zonedout, so glad he's better

yummymummy, meant to ask how are you feeling? hope a little stronger today

ellielou, thanks! actually, that drug means very little to me. i was only diagnosed after the birth of ds2 and was told i needed to go on a low dose chemo drug (methotrexate) asap as my joints are rapidly being destroyed however, in true zonedout style i have buried my head in the sand, continued to bf ds2 (so can't possibly go on the drugs) and ignored all the experts (including that of my rheumatologist brother ) do you mind me asking if your mum is badly affected by her arthritis? ps.do i recognise your name from nov '08? i used to post there (ds2 was due in nov but was 5 weeks prem). hope everyone is doing well!

am finally feeling human again thanks zonedout, still very run down and tired and achey but have finally seen the flu off I think as no longer boiling hot, just shifting chest infection now. Upset kids missed their end of nursery party (there is only 12 mth between my girls) and missed taking them to the tweenies live that had tickets for.

Found out today there still is an outside world after 11 days indoors with my eldest being very poorly in and out of doc, down to A&E in night, no sleeps etc then me getting the flu and being poorly. Went on a very exciting 10 minute trip to the bakers! Well it's a start and I got a nice bun to show for it sod the diet lol. You're doing so well to be so positive about everything I've been a bit of a moaning minnie!x

Everyone is doing well thank you . Her hands and feet were so swollen she couldnt put normal sized shoes on or get out of the bath or even turn door knobs, the swelling in her hands is down ALOT and her feet are still abit swollen but she can walk long distances and is back at the gym and is pretty much back to normal. It tells you about sulfesalazine here
You should pop in on the post natal thread we are a friendly bunch.
yummymummy you enjoy that bun

thank you already have done! That's good news ellielou02 that your Mum has been helped by the drug, hope you don't suffer badly with the condition zonedout x

So glad to hear he's better zoned, sounds like you have such a lot on your plate anyway!

Yummy, hope everything improves for you.