What a Nightmare

Yesterday was a complete nightmare!!!

I have had all three kids at home sick. It started last Friday with Tom spiking 39degree temps. The girls followed suit in the coming days but they both got over it after about 48 hours. Tom on the other hand, just kept getting worse. I took him to the Dr on Monday thinking he might have had an ear infection. He didn't and she just thought it was a virus. Yesterday he woke up covered in a rash and was inconsolable so back to the Dr's we went. I thought it was probably still an ear infection and he had had lots of diarrhea so I thought I would get told it was a virus, go home and ride it out. Well, actually that is what I would have preferred to have been told. Instead I got told to take him to Joondalup Hospital so they could have a look over him.

Arrived at Joondalup and they weren't concerned about the rash but they thought that he had a hernia on his groin. Still not overly worried at this point because I know these are fairly common problems and fixable. They sent him for an xray to make sure there was no bowel in the hernia. I was told that if the xray was OK, I would be able to take him home and they would refer him to see a surgeon as an outpatient at PMH in the coming weeks. I was sure that this would be the outcome!!!!

I realised things weren't quite going to my plan when the Dr came and asked if she could shut our door because Tom was screaming so much and she couldn't hear the Dr's from PMH on the phone. I asked her if she was talking to them about Tom and she said she was!!!! This was not the news I was after.

She came back to the room and told me to pack him up and take him to PMH where the Dr there was waiting for us. They said that where there should have been gas in his stomach there wasn't and he needed further testing to find out what was going on and possible surgery tonight.

We arrived at PMH with him still screaming and were taken straight through - thank God as there was a long waiting line. The Dr saw us straight away. They gave him some drugs to knock him out and he finally stopped screaming for a bit.

While he was calm, they examined him and decided he needed an ultrasound because they didn't think he had a hernia but that he had an inverted bowel - if this was the case, he would need surgery tonight to fix it as it's a serious problem.

We went upstairs to find we had the head sonographer doing his ultrasound and it was the same man who did Caitlin's brain ultrasound to give us the diagnosis of CP - arghhhhhh. Nervous now!!!

Anyway, to cut a long story short, he didn't have an inverted bowel, he doesn't have a hernia, he has a severe case of lower abdominal gastro and the lymph nodes in his groin and stomach are really swollen and that is why he is in so much pain.

A good dose of Painstop every 6 hours for the next few days and we should have a happy little camper back on our hands!!!

Talk about a stressful day!!