Atticus - update

As I sit here watching a wonderful documentary about the life of Mozart, I feel like I should update you on Atticus' escapades this week. Or rather "How Atticus got sick again and we went to the hospital twice in 24 hours".

(This also explains why we've been so tired lately).

On Monday this week, Atticus was finally well enough to go back to child care, and me to work after almost two weeks! He wasn't exactly himself, but that was to be expected as he was still recovering from his illness.

On Wednesday, just as I was about to meet Dan for lunch, I received a phone call from the child care centre. Atticus had had another convulsion and they had called an ambulance. Panic stations! I ran down to the centre, luckily only a couple of minutes away from my office, barely able to breathe by the time I got there (darn asthma!). The poor teachers were nervous wrecks and Atticus was lying asleep on the change mat, having come out of his convulsion and now in his post-ictal sleep. He looked pale and unwell. I was shaking with anxiety (plus asthma). The ambulance came very quickly after that and the paramedic bundled us into the ambulance and decided to take us to the Children's Hospital. The scariest thing about it all was that Atticus did not have an elevated temperature. The other convulsions he's had have always been febrile (with a fever).

We spent all afternoon at the hospital Emergency Department, and were well looked after by the most wonderful pediatric resident! Atticus slowly came back to his normal lively self and devoured a vegemite sandwich during our stay (but not neglecting to spread vegemite all over the bed sheet and my clothes!). At one point, when we were almost about to go home, one of the nurses remarked "Is that boy sick?" as he was happily playing and laughing and being generally adorable.

Atti will need to undergo more tests (including an MRI) to try and determine the cause of his convulsions, and in the mean time he has been prescribed an anti-convulsant medication. Having sorted this out, the doctor let us go home.

We fed the kids (boy was Atti hungry!) and put them to bed and I went to bed early, exhausted after the stressful day. But then Atti woke up again during the night... I settled him a bit and put him back to bed but he wasn't quite asleep. A short time later I heard him call out and then his breathing started sounding strange and raspy. I rushed to him and he was having yet another convulsion. I couldn't believe it.

The ambulance took us back to the Kids' Hospital where the rude and abrupt male nurse made me feel like it was all my fault because I hadn't filled the prescription right away (but I was under the impression that this wouldn't have made a huge difference in such a short time span). I was not very happy with him. He plonked us in the waiting room (at 4 o'clock in the morning! He could have at least given me a bed to put the sleeping child down) for two hours before the doctor saw us. She checked Atti over, gave him a dose of his medication and told us to go home. At least Atti was feeling a lot better and did manage to sleep for most of the time we were at the hospital.

Since Dan was at home with the car, and it was close enough to peak hour that I didn't want to ring for a lift (it's a good half an hour drive in off-peak time). So I ended up catching a bus to child care and waited for Dan to pick us up from there after he'd dropped Dante at school. The carers were very relieved to see that Atticus was okay. He was actually really happy to be there, and immediately started playing with all the toys, and when morning tea came out he was the first to the table and the last to leave (after eating four serves of baked beans!).

Since then Atticus has been fairly well. He has had some elevated temperatures, but no convulsions, thanks to the medication. I am still recovering from the long night in the hospital but am almost there! Hopefully Atti will be well enough to return to child care tomorrow. And boy am I grateful that my work has been so understanding and flexible.