Light Maybe at the end of the tunnel?

Today is 13 days since Rosie became ill...she was asleep again when I arrived at the hospital. Joshua Christina and Eve came with me and it was notabl that he staff greeted us with a smile and the nurse caring for Rosie commented that Eve's jacket was the same as her daughters.

The observation chart was brought to me without haveing to ask and we looked through the graphs of temperature pulse and sats...all had been relatively normal since the last spike at 6pm yesterday. Phew it looked like the change in antibiotic may actually be improving matters.

Joshua had brought his Violin along....like you do when you visit your sick sister in hospital...there actually was a very sensable reason why, Last Saurday we had purchased a new E string and it had been left in Rosie's suction which was of course at the hospital with her. So as Rosie as asleep and restringing a violin is not a quiet operation we went to the playroom to accomplish said task!

Now I can make a reasonable noise on a Clarinet, Flute, Most sizes of recorder, a piano/keyboard, and even a trumpet with a little stretch of the meaning of reasonable....but the Violi is not something I have ever mastered nor aken apart and reassembled....it therefore took a lot of umming an ahhing and taking off of glasses to try and see how a sring was attatched....I h just achieved th goal and was attempting the best efforts i could oftuning without anything to go by when the Nurse came to say the doctor was ready to see Rosie!

I left the playroom to the strains of the strangled cat that accompanies a young learner violinist!

So two young ladies who were apparantly the Doctors on duty arrive at Rosie's bedside and made noises about well she is still poorly and her temperature is still spiking and she is very lethargic so we will just watch and wait and see what is happening. Is that OK Mum?

Well actually no! this is going on and on and we have been wtching and waiting for almost wo weeks and despite antibiotics for 5 days and an added antibiotic yesterday Rosie is still very unwell. Rosie does not do laying in bed! rosie is active...VERY Activ 21 hours out of 24 and it is nothing unusual for her to be going or 72 hours without stopping...she has now laid in bed for more than 21 hours out of 24 for 13 days...what are we waiting for? What is the threshold for deciding to take bloods? Why are we resisting doing blood cultures?

There was a lot of skrting round the point...sugggesting that she is on a lot of antiepileptic drug that can cause drowsiness so it is not really anything to worry about.

i disagreed! I disagreed again and gave examples of drug she had taken that had had no sedative effect....they smiled and said another Doctor would be around in a while nd they would ask his advise...the name was one I recognised and was confident he would listen, even if he may not agree.

Meanwhile the music was stil coming from the playroom and everyone was saying how nice it was....I was glad when he got fed up and brought the violin back!

Later someone showed the children to the adolescent room...there was much more to interest them there and they were happy playing. Unfortunately Eve was not...nothing seemed to pleaseher and I spent a long while juggling Eve and Rosie on my lap on the bed and on the floor. Neither were happy and both wanted me to hemselves! URGH I must master the art of cloning!
Dr P arrived and came in to see us, it has been amazing that everyone who has come to us since Rosie's admition has remembered Eve...Dr P was no different. i like Dr P, he has the right amount of humour balanced with sensetivity and knowledge. His first words were...Tell me what you understand to be the isues with Rosie now. I sid acually I really did not understand what was happening with Rosie and I was concerned that bloods had not been taken after such a length of time. I knew a chest X Ray had hown some changes and that anther antibiotic was added in but further to that I ws just really concerned that Rosie was still ill, I admited that I knw too much, that Joanthan had developped septaceamia from chest infecton and that h colonised pseaudomonas. Rosie had had an ear infection caused by Pseudomonas and I had a fear that mayb this was also Peudomonas that would therefore not respond to the current treatment.
It was like a breath of fresh air. dr P admitted that everything I said had relevance and he had no objection to doing blood cultures now. He asured me that I was not being paranoid nor irrational in my thinking, he also said he expected the cultures to be negative, he felt a sputum sample would be more help but agreed that would be almost impossible to gain. He said the X ry showed deffinite signs of pneumonia and that her original virul cold had produced a secondary bacterial infection and that was why she was so ill. he felt we needed to be sure we were on top of things before she went home...agreed that risking her infecting Jonthan was unacceptable.
I certainly fel listened too!

The ward was very quiet after the traumas of the day before. The staff were freindly and chatty. i spent a while at their station chatting whilst Rosie played musical laps...each nurse getting a cuddle and then moving on to the next. It was so much nicer than being mde to feel we were in the way and others were sicker than Rosie and she only had a virus....nothing had changed apart from the interaction between staff and worried Mum.

The other nice thing that happened was that when they were ready to take Rosie's bloods, on of th staff Nurses asked Joshua and Christina if they would look after Eve...he explained where we would be and we could see the room form the room we were in. Then afterwards told them how helpful they were and thanked them. It was so nice that they were accepted as capable without being taken for granted!

We came home at 3 O'Clock...to find David feeling very sorry for himself. Back ache tummy ache tired headache....he has had a bath and I am about to send him to bed....unfortunately Eve came home and laid on the settee and fell asleep immediatly....8.15 and she is still asleep.

Sleep Vibes would be welcome! And prayers that Rosie may be better still tomorrow and we can bring her home. I have had enough of hospital runs now!

I donot kow what the future holds, But I am glad I know who holds the future!

hugs
Tina