“I think we need to take him to A&E”. That is a sentence I never expected to say. It definitely wasn’t one I expected to say on numerous different occasions over the past year!
Just over a year ago was the first time we had to take him to A&E. It was one of the most scariest moments of my life. Alfie wasn’t even nine months old at the time. He had a bit of a cold, he was lethargic, he was not himself and you could see that his breathing wasn’t right. As his mum I knew something wasn’t right.
We rang the NHS 111 service and they tried to get us an out of hours appointment, but they couldn’t. They told us to take him to A&E.
Something was really wrong
I’ll never forget the relief that I felt when I was told that it was the best thing we could’ve done. His oxygen levels were scarily low for a baby of that age. Constantly sitting below 95% I was devastated that we hadn’t realised sooner that something was devastatingly wrong.
Luckily the nurses and the doctors were amazing, they quickly got him on a nebuliser and although that made his heart rate go scarily high, his oxygen levels picked up. He perked up. It was helping.
He had to have steroids and hourly inhalers until he could go four hours and onto a weaning regime to be continued at home.
He’s always poorly
Unfortunately, this has become a regular occurrence when Alfie gets a cold, it goes straight to his chest and he gets poorly quite quickly.
Unfortunately, we’ve had to go to take him to A&E at the bigger hospital. There is a children’s ward there.
Unfortunately, it has always been in an ambulance.
Unfortunately, we have had to have an overnight stay.
They tell us that it’s a viral induced wheeze. It’s not Asthma. Doctors generally come to the same conclusions but we have had some that we’ve not agreed with, like our most recent visit. We saw two doctors as we arrived at the change over of shift. The first doctor said that he had a wheeze and it was viral. The second said there was no wheeze and he was absolutely fine… within an hour. I know which I’m more inclined to go with!
It’s horrible when Alfie first gets poorly. He is normally the happiest little soul but when it hits him, it hits him hard. He goes downhill fast. I spent half an hour holding him with his head buried into my shoulder and him wanting me to hold him tight. That’s not like him at all.
He’s recently stopped breastfeeding, but when he is poorly that is the one thing he would do, even when he didn’t want to eat or drink. That is the one thing he asked for at the hospital on Saturday.
Fighting for our little boy
We have to fight him to give him inhalers. We have to fight him to get him to take his liquid steroids. We have to fight him to give him medicine. We do it because we love him and we know it’s for the best.
It is heartbreaking.
We are fortunate that he picks up quickly. We know what to tell the doctors now. We know what works for him and what doesn’t. I wish we could do something that would stop it all in the first place.
Hospitals aren’t the most exciting place to be and Alfie hates having anything on him that he doesn’t like, so constantly having a monitor stuck on his toe did not go down well. He has to be monitored a lot so he can’t go out to the waiting room and play with the toys and it’s not the kind of place that you want a toddler to be running around.
Hospital
Have you ever tried entertaining a nearly two year old for four hours with no toys and they can’t really move from a hospital bed…? It’s not easy!
I’m hoping that it will be something that he can grow out of. Maybe it is something that is only affecting him because he’s a baby? Or maybe it is Asthma and if it was to be diagnosed it could be treated? Have your little ones ever been poorly like this? How did you cope?
Alfie, we will always do our very best to look after you. We will always take you to the hospital if that is what you need. We’ll fight you over and over to give you your inhaler if it is going to help make you better. We will always argue with doctors, paramedics, nurses, who think that you are not poorly just because you are a happy chappy. We’ll always do what’s best for you. We love you lots and lots like jelly tots.
Mummy Fox xx