Well it's not quite been the morning I planned. We were going to the Safari park but I guess little Alana had plans of her own.
It all started on Thursday night, when Alana started to sound a little hoarse and got a barking cough. She seemed OK in herself and slept well as usual through the night. Then on Friday although still a little croaky, she was OK. We went off to our normal Jo Jingles class and it was then I realised she had developed a temperature. The temp settled with Calpol, but during the afternoon her breathing got noisier, although she still well in herself. She was eating and drinking normally, just breathing noisily.
This morning Kai snuck into our room early, and between telling him to lay down and go back to sleep and trying to listen out for Alana, she decided to wake early too, but now she seemed to be struggling to catch her breath. We decided it was best to get her checked out. Mark tried to contact our GP to get the out of office number, but even though it should have been an answer machine at that time in the morning it just kept giving him the engaged tone. He even drove round to the surgery just to see the sign giving the same number.
In the mean time I had run the bath and was in the bathroom with Kai and Alana. Trying to explain to a three year old why he needed to play on the floor and not get in the bath, all the time trying to get Alana near to the steam but not in the position where if she suddenly threw herself around, she would touch the hot water.
Mark came back and we decided to just take her up to A&E, quickly throwing drinks and breakfast on move food for the kids into the change bag. We are lucky that we only live around the corner, so it didn't take us long.
I got us registered and got told to wait in the children's waiting area. After being triaged and made to feel silly by my little madam her oxygen saturation level was 100%, but she was still breathing noisily.The Dr eventually got to us (a couple of more urgent cases had come through the door first), he examined her in the waiting room, and the two cubicles were in use. He then walked off, no explanation, or anything.
The nurse appeared a short time later with some steroid in s syringe and a nebuliser. Now for those that don't know I was a children's nurse until about 7yrs ago, which at that moment in time felt a lifetime away. The nurse assumed I understood what was going on and what I was doing. The nebuliser helped ease her noise a bit and made my little girl suddenly very energetic, she was ready to go playing back in the waiting room.
We sat around a little longer, until the Dr came back, asked after her and decided she could go home. Now going by the fact it's Sept I presume that the Dr was from the latest intake of Dr's (SHO's). So I hope for the sake of his future parents he learns to explain what is going on, or at least knows to get the nurses more involved in his care.
I'm fortunate enough to have my medical experience, so I know they were treating Alana for croup, but if it had been anybody else???
So the lesson for today is when dealing with a client, another Mummy or anyone, explain everything, never assume and although it's useful to know someone’s background and past experience, it is the experience of the now that is most important. Do they understand what is going on, don't assume...
We are now home, had lunch and a nice quiet three hour nap, she looks so much brighter and happier, still a little noisy, but not as much as before. She got to take another dose of steroids tonight and hopefully that'll help settle her.
Kai, did get to see his animals as Mark took him to the safari park this afternoon anyway. But because of the sudden burst of summer, we're currently experiencing so did a lot of other people. Which meant they were stuck in the car for quite a lot of the afternoon, oopps at least he's now having his turn on the rides he loves so much.
0 comments:
Post a Comment