Sick Noah

Poor Noah has been feeling sick today. Over the past few weeks he hasn't been great. It seems to be one thing after another right now. I'm definitely not complaining though as he hasn't actually been in hospital for two years now - two years!!! Before that he had actually been in hospital over 35 times so it really is amazing that he hasn't been in for so long.

He has been sick in the last two years, but we have been able to keep him out of hospital with help of his paediatrician - Dr Bailey, and also because we know how to manage things at home better. The only reason he really has to go into hospital now is if he needs oxygen or IV meds.

This morning he woke up crying, so I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. His carer Bridget was here to help get him ready for school, and while she was here he settled down (after lots of cuddles from me) so I decided to send him to school. He didn't seem sick this morning - just grumpy. Often he can be grumpy and then if he goes out he seems to settle down.

He was coughing during the night a little and woke up earlier than he usually does to be turned over (usually he wakes between 2am and 4am, but last night he woke at midnight). Noah sleeps in a hospital bed in our bedroom. The hospital bed is great as it means we can elevate his head easily. He used to sleep in Jay's room, but every night I would end up getting up to him a couple of times and by the time I heard him he would be screaming and would then be hard to settle back to sleep. Also he would often end up getting sick during the night and I wouldn't know until it was too late. After a few weeks of bringing him into our room during the night we decided it would just be easier if he moved into our room with us. It is very romantic ;)

All through the night I can hear him snoring and making lots of noises. I always know when it is time to roll him as he starts moving his legs first which wakes me. Once I roll him over he usually settles back down to sleep pretty quick - unless he isn't feeling great (and no - Aaron NEVER gets up. He has that thing that most men seem to have, where they can't hear the kids in the night - even when they are in the same room as him!!! Not long ago I decided I had enough of getting up to Noah every night so I told Aaron it was his turn. I had to wake Aaron up to get up to him so I was awake anyway. After three nights Aaron tells me he was so tired because of the broken nights sleep!!). I can't remember the last time I had a full nights sleep - I definitely haven't had one in the last 6 years - except maybe one or two nights when he was in hospital and Aaron stayed in with him while I came home for the night. It is funny though as I'm just used to it now and if Noah ends up not waking until about 5am I actually feel worse!

When I dropped off Noah at school I told his aide - Di, to ring me if he was upset or seemed sick and she was worried. Di also works as his carer at home 4 hours a week so she knows him very well. When I went to pick him up at 3pm she came up to me and said he had a good morning, but in the afternoon he started yelling a lot, and coughing and then vomited up his last feed. When I saw him he was not happy at all. He was breathing really fast and his temp was up and he looked really pale

I rang Dr Bailey's office straight away. They know us very well and are really nice about fitting us in. They know I only ring if I really need to as they know I can usually manage things pretty well on my own. I usually only ring when Noah's temp is up and he is breathing faster than normal as I know that usually means an infection which needs antibiotics. They said we could bring him down an hour later which we did.

Dr Bailey said his chest sounded OK - just a few little sounds that shouldn't have been there, but he didn't have a huge chest infection. He took a mouth and nose swab and said that it may be viral, but it could also be influenza A which is going around right now. He decided to prescribe him a broad spectrum antibiotic as he said if it is the flu then he could get a bacterial infection secondary to the flu, and the antibiotics will help. He did say that if it is viral then the antibiotics won't help, but we won't know till the swab results come back in a few days. So in the meantime he is on antibiotics - till we know what we are dealing with.

So that was our fun afternoon. Noah has settled down since coming home, but has vomited all night. We have decided to not give him his last feed as we know he just won't keep it down. Hopefully he will have a good night tonight and will wake up feeling a lot better in the morning. I am keeping him home from school tomorrow even if he wakes up okay - he probably just needs a day at home to rest - not that he does a lot of running around at school! ;) I actually feel that he has been very lucky this year - so many of the kids in his class have been away sick. Last week there were 8 kids away in one day and Noah has only had three days off school all year.