The Darkest Hour

If I could choose what to write about it would be something cheerful like, "This week the children played happily and no one was sick or cranky and it was merry and bright!" I'd love to just write that and leave you all thinking that I have a quiet life. I wish I did.

Instead I have to write how, last Sunday morning at 3.30am I was driving Ruby to the hospital as she screamed in pain, grunting and panting. I have to write how we were in the emergency room for 10 and a half hours while they X Rayed her, stuck a cannula in her arm and she screamed hysterically and wouldn't let me sit down for almost the whole time. I had to rock her and sing "Baa Baa Black Sheep" over and over again while she sobbed. Eventually we were admitted to the children's ward, and by this time Ruby actually needed some oxygen to help get her levels up a bit more. The doctor on call insisted that it was just a virus and she had some stomach cramps. I don't know where the fuck this man got his degree from, maybe the Psycho School of Medicine. It was obvious to anyone- all the nurses who looked at her, that the child had pneumonia. Even I could see it, the grunting she was doing with her breathing is classic with pneumonia and so is the stomach pain. And sure enough when our own paediatrician came to see her the next morning that's exactly what he said.

We were in hospital for 4 days. It took Ruby a couple of days to fell better enough to play, and from then on she improved really well, which was such a relief. Now, a week later, she is much, much better. Still on antibiotics of course, and I still give her physio on her chest a couple of times a day, but she has stopped having those spasms of pain in her lungs that were sending her into hysterics.

And just to add some more interest to my life, which I really DON'T need, about half an hour after we got Ruby home from the hospital, school,rang to say that Simon was not well and could we pick him up? He came home with a 39.5 degree fever and I took him straight to our doctor, where he fell asleep in the waiting room. We did a chest X ray and then went back first thing the next day. Sure enough, the X ray showed the beginnings of... guess what? Pneumonia!!! Yay! 2 for the price of 1. So in 2 weeks time I have to take Simon and Ruby to the paediatrician. I actually got back to back appointments. Ruby just to follow up her recovery, and Simon to see what the hell we do now.

In the mean time, good old Dexie bumbles along. He got to hang out with Auntie Kim, who (conveniently for us!) is the Principal of the Hospital School. So he had a great time going to "Class' while Brett and I were sitting by Ruby's bedside.