Rosie's Mummy
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My beautiful boy began crying last Friday, although in hindsight we think he may have started to feel ill on Thursday evening. I presumed it was wind as he is a very windy baby, Gripe Water worked a treat and he would bring up loads of wind. When he continued to cry all day on Saturday I started to think that he was coming down with the cold that we have all had. How wrong was I about that..
On Saturday night Steve went to work as usual and I began to get Rosie and Matt ready for bed, to cut a long story short I could not get either of them to sleep because of Matt's crying. Eventually at 8.30pm I decided that I ought to try Matt with some Calpol thinking that it might settle him down if he was feeling unwell. So at the same time I took his temperature. My eyes must have popped out of my head as I read the dial as 38 degrees, I phoned my Mum for some advice and took his temp again whilst I was on the phone, 38.2 degrees; I couldnt believe it, his temp was going up when it should have been going down, I had stripped him off and was dabbing his head with a wet cloth. I hung up on my mum and rang the out of hours doctor service who advised me to take him to ur local hospital to see the doctor - I might mention that just before I made that call I took his temp again and it had risen to 38,7 degrees - I was having fits by now and called Steve to come home from work to take us to the hospital. Anyway, we took him to see the doctor and by this time his temp had come down - the doctor didnt actually tell us what his reading was but to hear him say it was ok was enough I guess. He told us that they werent concerned with babies with high temperatures and just to strip him off and give him Calpol. At the time I thought to myself, 'this doctor is talking shit' as I know that a baby with a temperature says something is wrong BUT you tend to be reassured as you think they ought to be right!
That night Matt slept until 2.15am (just as the Calpol wore off) screaming, his temp was 38 degrees and I gave him some more Calpol as I had been told to do (I am severly kicking myself now believe me) Matt woke the next morning crying again but I had managed to settle him with Calpol and breastfeeding. I was so tired but had him niggling in my head all morning. We had our friend Jimmy over for lunch and Steve got up at about midday. I asked him to come and look at Matt's chest as I thoughy I could see a rash, it wasnt but I guess the whole Meningitis thing was at the back of my mind trying to get to the front! It was soon very apparent that Matt was getting worse when he refused to feed; we made the decision to take him immediately to Bristol Children's A&E as we had excellent treatment for Rosie's breast abcess here.
When we arrived we had to wait about half an hour for the triage nurse to see us but when she took Matt's temp we went straight through to see the doctor (lovely Dermot!). We very quickly had to come to terms with the fact that something serious was wrong, before we knew it I was holding Matt's legs while they put a canula in his hand to take bloods and my poor poor baby screamed the whole time. They then asked us to leave the room while they did the lumbar puncture, I could hear him screaming from outside, it was so distressing I cannot tell you how bad it was. They told us that Matt would have to stay in for at least 48 hours and that they would be testing for lots of things but mainly meningitis - by this time some non-blanching spots had appeared on his legs, this almost made me hysterical! We were taken up to the ward where the lovely doctor came and infomed me that they had found a lot of white blood cells in his CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) and also in his urine. I think I just stared at the doctor in disbelief and then just broke down, that M word - every mother's worst nightmare - the thing that always happend to someone else.
Anyway, this week has been the worst of my life. I have watched Matt slip away from me and then come back again, he has been so so poorly I just can't describe it- there have been times where I have been so upset I can't stop crying, all of the worst things run though your mind - just awful. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
So now, Matt is improving slowly, his temperature spiked this morning for the first time since we came in but I think that was because the night nurse decided not to give him any Calpol and Ibuprofen because he was so happy at 6am and was even smiling, that changed very quickly and he has mostly slept all day and fed on me. They havent found any bacteria yet in the cultures grown which suggests to me that it is viral - at one stage they were treating it as Group B Strep (late onset meningitis at 3 months) as I had it in pregnancy but they are not anymore. He is on 3 different antibiotics and a steroid to reduce imflammation, all IV, one is on a driver that takes 30 minutes. My poor baby.
All being well we can come home on Saturday if he responds well when the antibiotics stop on Friday - I am praying that he is ok. I can't think about development damage right now but they are going to give him a hearing test; I think his hearing is ok because he can be startled by noise. Thats something else that MG does, it makes them hyper sensitive to everything - light, sound, touch. Matt has had a stiff neck and a probable terrible headache from the inflammation but also from the lumbar puncture. He cries when I lift his legs to change his nappy because it increases the pressure in his head. He has a small hernia in his belly button from all the crying and a very upset tummy/diarrhoea from the onslaught of antibiotics. The only symptoms a temperature and crying - I will never ever overlook that every again with either of my children.
I really want to stress to everyone that a temperature in babies means trouble and it should ALWAYS be checked out, the hospital will always look at a hot baby and treat it seriously.
I so hope that none of you have to endure what I have gone through this week xxx
On Saturday night Steve went to work as usual and I began to get Rosie and Matt ready for bed, to cut a long story short I could not get either of them to sleep because of Matt's crying. Eventually at 8.30pm I decided that I ought to try Matt with some Calpol thinking that it might settle him down if he was feeling unwell. So at the same time I took his temperature. My eyes must have popped out of my head as I read the dial as 38 degrees, I phoned my Mum for some advice and took his temp again whilst I was on the phone, 38.2 degrees; I couldnt believe it, his temp was going up when it should have been going down, I had stripped him off and was dabbing his head with a wet cloth. I hung up on my mum and rang the out of hours doctor service who advised me to take him to ur local hospital to see the doctor - I might mention that just before I made that call I took his temp again and it had risen to 38,7 degrees - I was having fits by now and called Steve to come home from work to take us to the hospital. Anyway, we took him to see the doctor and by this time his temp had come down - the doctor didnt actually tell us what his reading was but to hear him say it was ok was enough I guess. He told us that they werent concerned with babies with high temperatures and just to strip him off and give him Calpol. At the time I thought to myself, 'this doctor is talking shit' as I know that a baby with a temperature says something is wrong BUT you tend to be reassured as you think they ought to be right!
That night Matt slept until 2.15am (just as the Calpol wore off) screaming, his temp was 38 degrees and I gave him some more Calpol as I had been told to do (I am severly kicking myself now believe me) Matt woke the next morning crying again but I had managed to settle him with Calpol and breastfeeding. I was so tired but had him niggling in my head all morning. We had our friend Jimmy over for lunch and Steve got up at about midday. I asked him to come and look at Matt's chest as I thoughy I could see a rash, it wasnt but I guess the whole Meningitis thing was at the back of my mind trying to get to the front! It was soon very apparent that Matt was getting worse when he refused to feed; we made the decision to take him immediately to Bristol Children's A&E as we had excellent treatment for Rosie's breast abcess here.
When we arrived we had to wait about half an hour for the triage nurse to see us but when she took Matt's temp we went straight through to see the doctor (lovely Dermot!). We very quickly had to come to terms with the fact that something serious was wrong, before we knew it I was holding Matt's legs while they put a canula in his hand to take bloods and my poor poor baby screamed the whole time. They then asked us to leave the room while they did the lumbar puncture, I could hear him screaming from outside, it was so distressing I cannot tell you how bad it was. They told us that Matt would have to stay in for at least 48 hours and that they would be testing for lots of things but mainly meningitis - by this time some non-blanching spots had appeared on his legs, this almost made me hysterical! We were taken up to the ward where the lovely doctor came and infomed me that they had found a lot of white blood cells in his CSF (cerebral spinal fluid) and also in his urine. I think I just stared at the doctor in disbelief and then just broke down, that M word - every mother's worst nightmare - the thing that always happend to someone else.
Anyway, this week has been the worst of my life. I have watched Matt slip away from me and then come back again, he has been so so poorly I just can't describe it- there have been times where I have been so upset I can't stop crying, all of the worst things run though your mind - just awful. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.
So now, Matt is improving slowly, his temperature spiked this morning for the first time since we came in but I think that was because the night nurse decided not to give him any Calpol and Ibuprofen because he was so happy at 6am and was even smiling, that changed very quickly and he has mostly slept all day and fed on me. They havent found any bacteria yet in the cultures grown which suggests to me that it is viral - at one stage they were treating it as Group B Strep (late onset meningitis at 3 months) as I had it in pregnancy but they are not anymore. He is on 3 different antibiotics and a steroid to reduce imflammation, all IV, one is on a driver that takes 30 minutes. My poor baby.
All being well we can come home on Saturday if he responds well when the antibiotics stop on Friday - I am praying that he is ok. I can't think about development damage right now but they are going to give him a hearing test; I think his hearing is ok because he can be startled by noise. Thats something else that MG does, it makes them hyper sensitive to everything - light, sound, touch. Matt has had a stiff neck and a probable terrible headache from the inflammation but also from the lumbar puncture. He cries when I lift his legs to change his nappy because it increases the pressure in his head. He has a small hernia in his belly button from all the crying and a very upset tummy/diarrhoea from the onslaught of antibiotics. The only symptoms a temperature and crying - I will never ever overlook that every again with either of my children.
I really want to stress to everyone that a temperature in babies means trouble and it should ALWAYS be checked out, the hospital will always look at a hot baby and treat it seriously.
I so hope that none of you have to endure what I have gone through this week xxx
am so relieved that Matt seems to be on the mend xx
hope he is home soon xx
