Oli's hospital sleepover

Father's Day weekend turned out to be a little eventful, especially for Oliver. For a few days last week, Oli had been complaining of a sore throat and I just assumed it was the lead-in to the flu that everyone seemed to have had. On Friday he still went to school and played soccer in Friday afternoon sport. When he came home, he kinda crashed on the couch and said he was really tired. 

I went off to work at 7pm and early in the morning Oliver's breathing became really shallow and he was finding it hard to breath and his chest was decompressing with every breath. He could hardly talk and was quite panicked. Simon set off to the LGH and texted me to say that he was taking Oliver in. My shift was about to end so as soon as I could, I raced into the LGH. Poor Oliver was on a bed with an ECG going as his heart rate was very elevated and they were trying to work out what was going on. 

They started him on nebulised adrenaline and prednisolone and were trying to work out if it was asthma or croup or a virus that manifests itself the same as croup because the Dr said he was a little old to be getting croup. Oliver has had croup before back in 2008, which I had conveniently blogged about back then. It turned out quite fortuitous that I had, as it was easy to bring to mind his medical history. I smiled too as it brought back memories of hanging with my sisters in the playroom back then and we were sending texts about our party in the playroom and about how it was time to revisit that party.

The Dr (Maggie Phelan) was great and I told her that she had helped with Hallie when she was a baby, 12 years ago. When I said it was the baby girl with CAH, she said, "oh that's right and you guys lived on the coast". It's easy to remember when you are a 1 in 15,000 and not many other CAH cases come through the hospital, except for maybe your sibling of course! 

After Oli was stabilised. he was admitted to 4K (kids' ward) and settled in. He was still unwell but his breathing had improved a bit and his heart rate was much better. His temp was still 38.3 so they continued to do half hourly obs and they put him on some fluids. He was really good having the canula put in downstairs in emergency as they had numbed a few different spots in preparation for doing bloods etc. He said he didn't really felt he needle going in which was a great result. Even if he did, Oliver is a really good brave boy and was trying to be really calm.

Once I got into emergency, Simon left about an hour later  and organised to bring the other kids in later that night. Jonty and Flynn absolutely loved the kids' ward as they hadn't been there for a little while and I think they wanted Oliver to stay in for longer than he did so they could come back everyday and play. Flynn narrowly missed being there with his 4th bout of gastro in 2 months and his paediatrician said I really should have had him there but between the GP and I, we managed to keep him out.

As I hadn't been home really since Friday morning, Simon stayed the night and I went home for a shower and to do the weekend washing. A lovely friend had made us a yummy pie for tea and it was so appreciated. The next morning was Father's Day and we got back to the hospital about 9.30 and Jonty was excited to give Simon his presents.

Simon left about 10am and the younger  boys went back and forth from the playroom. Lisa came to visit us and had also popped in the day before with some yummy treats for me and Oliver. It was so nice to see her smiling face. Lisa ran into a lovely nurse, Bec who used to look after Noah, and it was so nice to see them catch up. I teased Lisa that she was a celebrity on the ward as she knew the Dr who was looking after Oli as well as Bec.

Bec came in to Oliver's room and and gave everyone a can of fizz and asked if we wanted anything else. We were all laughing as it looked like she was going to clean out the fridge for us.

My Dad has been in hospital for nearly 8 weeks now and it has been very hard for him to stay in bed all that time as he prepares for a skin graft on an old wound that opened up and got quite nasty. Because we were only a floor below him, I sent up a photo of Oliver's lunch.  (We have been commenting on the food in the hospital over the last few weeks and Dad is dreaming of a beautiful lamb roast. I promise I will make him one when he gets out). The exact same thing was on his menu too. - Irish stew!

Initially the Drs were talking about letting Oliver out sometime on Monday but as the day wore on and his breathing continued to stabilise, they said if he had some food and liquids, he could go home in the afternoon. I've never seen Oliver eat so quickly.

;)

Once Oliver was discharged, we went upstairs to ward 5B to visit my Dad with my sister Lisa. It has been a long hard struggle and I feel so bad that he has been in for this long. I'm really hoping that today when they do more surgery, his 4th in 2 months, that the end of his recovery will be in sight for him.

It was definitely a very different Father's Day to what we usually enjoy, which is visiting my Dad and enjoying the daffodils on his property and having a lovely meal together.  This was my first Father's Day blog post from 2007 where we are at my Dad's place.  I had also planned to do a turkey roast and baked cheesecake for Simon so we might hold off until next week now. :)

Oliver has been sleeping a lot since we came home and is into his second day off school. Flynn has also crashed a bit with a temp and feeling unwell so they are keeping each other company on the couch. I posted a few pics of Oli in hospital on FB and IG over the weekend and Oli and I are grateful for everyone's love and support.
THANKYOU!