WHERE is the STOP button?!!!!!

Just when we thought our journey with Abbie’s poor health was allllllll over,
we’ve just spent the last 2 nights in one of these sparkly white rooms again….

And quite frankly it sucks!

So much for hoping that ear surgery & grommets would be our magical solution to great health and an end to all Abbie’s high fevers…

It’s a really long story but basically Abbie has been running really high temperatures again since last Wednesday, with no other obvious physical symptoms.
My first instinct was that she had been very unlucky and was just coming down with a separate virus, unrelated to all her prior problems. She was already on post op antibiotics so I knew there wasn’t much chance of infection. But when she woke on Wednesday evening burning up again, dry choking and severely miserable I took her to emergency to have her checked out for post op complications for peace of mind.
They agreed she was miserable but agreed with my instinct that it was a new virus and she would more than likely develop some other symptoms in the next 24 hours.
So we went home on strong pain relief to await further developments.
It was an extremely sleepless & unpleasant night, as were the following days.

Cue Saturday; there had been no improvement in her temperature but no other new symptoms to indicate it was definitely viral so I took her back to my GP for another check. Especially as it was starting to feel all to familiar, given that by this stage she had been running a temp like this for at least 40-50% of the last 6 weeks!!

After assessing her history our GP requested bloods, which was my next request too.
Since it was Saturday we had to go to the hospital to get said bloods.
Well…
one thing led to another and soon going in for a blood test instead resulted in her being admitted for further investigation.

And that’s where we have been for the last 2 days….
Having hourly obs, a myriad of different tests and numerous consults with the senior paediatricians to try and discover what is going on.

She has been tested for just about everything under the sun including bacterial infections, glandular fever, auto immune diseases, leukaemia, lymphoma etc etc etc…
(*** Scary words alert – Cue Mummy-brain-explosion!!***)
So far though, other than showing that she’s anaemic {again}, the blood results have all come back in normal ranges, indicating that it is most likely to be a viral infection and nothing more sinister.
Phew.
A little bit anyway.

So this morning we have been allowed home as we wait for the rest of the test results, because now everybody’s suspicion is back to that she’s just most likely got a severe case of influenza. And as she is drinking well and showing no signs of dehydration then they are confident I can document and monitor her fever just as effectively at home as they can in the hospital.

And now we wait…
for signs of improvement and the rest of the test results to come back
 – whichever comes first really.

We have an appointment next week to discuss her immunology test results & the rest of the longer taking ones, however, they have instructed me to take her straight back to emergency if there is no reduction in her fever by Wednesday & they will reassess her needs from there.

Meanwhile I am trying to remain optimistic…

Most of the time I have been ok, but I must admit that I do have my down moments where it’s hard not to focus on the worst outcomes.
Much of that depends on Abbie’s appearance….
Abbie can be seemingly well for a few hours at time, chatting away & watching tv happily…. especially when she’s on nurofen. It seems to make her feel loads better.
But a great portion of the day she spends very “flat”, burning up in bed and only interested in grunting responses or crying and wanting Mummy.

Overall there has been no real improvement in her fever for 6 days now and it is very hard to separate in my brain what’s going on now with how long she’s been sick with a persistent fever before the surgery.
And as a Mum you can’t help the occasional niggles that go on in the background at times wondering the worst.
It’s just not easy to see her like this!!
Especially as she’s baffled all the doctors and we were all tempted to call in House.

So we wait.
And we pray.
And we wait some more.

Until then, if you excuse me, all blogging, emails & internet activity will be suspended until further notice….
I will be reading your comments/emails but I will not be responding until we have some improvement in the situation.
I know you’ll understand!