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Lone parents

Use our Single Parent forum to speak to other parents raising a child alone.

DS was admitted to hospital on Saturday night

6 replies

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 09:54

with suspected meningitis, and although it was just a scare and he's fine now it really brought it home to me just how alone we are. DS and I live on our own and I don't drive, and on Saturday evening he was violently sick for absolutely no reason or with any warning and as I was trying to get him out of his vomit covered clothes he was going all floppy and falling asleep on me. He was burning up even though he had no clothes on and he looked grey, and 5 minutes before he went like this he was playing happily on the living room floor with his train tracks that he got for his birthday. I know that with meningitis usually the last thing to appear is the rash, and he went like this so suddenly that I phoned the out of hours doctor who told me to take him to the local emergency doctors' surgery. At the surgery he kept saying that the light was hurting his eyes and that his neck hurt and then he was sick again. He was very compliant for the doctor and she found two tiny spots on his bum that wouldn't blanche so she asked for a paediatrician at the hospital to check him over, and the paed said she wanted to keep him in overnight. On Sunday morning ds woke up at 6am as happy as larry, singing and talking so much that I had to take him into the freezing cold play room to stop him waking the other children on the ward. To look at him you wondered why he was in there, and I felt like a total fraud for being so worried, even though I know what he was like just 12 hours before and it was very, very frightening!

We are totally alone, and I know it's an irrational thought but I'm frightned that if I fell downstairs or had a heart attack or something no one would know and ds wouldn't be able to call for help. I keep my mobile with me at all times, even in the bathroom, but it's still a frightening prospect about what would happen to ds if something happened to me.

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 09/10/2006 09:55

Oh, gin! I'm so sorry! How scary for you.

SOOOO glad your son is allright.

(((HUGS))

And bumping this for other lone parents on here.

Overrun · 09/10/2006 10:11

Hi awful ginmummy, and so much more scarey dealing with that on your own. I'm really glad that he was okay in the end.
I don't really know what advice to offer about what would happen to your ds if something happened to you. I know that you know that it is unlikely but even so, its a worry.
Can you arrange for familiy or friend to ring you at certain times so that they could check on you if you don't respond?

Overrun · 09/10/2006 10:12

sorry meant to say, how awful

ginmummy · 09/10/2006 10:16

Overrun - you were probably right the first time!

I live next door to my mother but she's not in the best of health herself at the minute and I don't want to keep bothering her when I know she's knackered. She took us to the hospital but by 8pm she was visibly weary herself.

As the Dire Straits song goes, 'it never rains round here, it just comes pouring down'.

OP posts:
arfishymeau · 10/10/2006 05:03

Oh Gin you poor thing. It sounds absolutely terrifying, let alone being on your own and dealing with it. I hope you're over the shock and DS is still fine.

BudaBeast · 10/10/2006 06:29

Oh ginmummy - sounds terrible - glad he is OK now thouhg.

FWIW I too worry about anything happening to me if DS and I were on our own - I am married but DH goes away a lot. I think it is something we all worry about to an extent.

But the chances of anything like that happening are very small you know.

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