Wednesday 22 October 2008

Hugh in Hospital

Sorry I don't have any photos for this post. Despite my motto of "don't go anywhere without a camera" I rushed off to the doctor's surgery on Saturday morning with Hugh, but without my camera. Hugh had been coughing on Thursday night/Friday, then had a fever on Friday night. By Saturday morning his pulse was racing, and he was breathing rapidly and sucking in his belly and throat trying to get more air. We knew this was not good, so administered some ventolin, which had little effect. So while Roger took the girls with him to deliver Nanna and Granddad to the airport at Lyon, I took Hugh to the doctor. The doctor got Hugh's shirt off to listen to his chest, measured his temperature quickly with a forehead sensor, and then lay him down for an examination. The doctor was quick to say what I didn't want to hear: that it was serious and that Hugh should go immediately to the hospital. He suspected pneumonia, so ordered a pulmonary x-ray.
Didn't I say one time before that we should find the hospital so that we know where it is in an emergency?? Luckily Roger hadn't left yet for Lyon so I called him and asked him to bring TomTom, our GPS, so I could find the way. Despite what everyone said about it being easy to find I am glad I had TomTom or I would have become extremely flustered trying to get there. So I took the autoroute all the way and made the most of the 130km/hour speed limit, and kept glancing back at Hugh to make sure he wasn't going bluer around the mouth.
Once at the paediatric emergency section of the hospital I just had to give details to fill in some paperwork before we were shown in to a consulting room. Hugh lay on the examination bed with his tummy pumping in and out. Being a teaching hospital (CHU) there were plenty of medical students, interns, externs, and doctors coming and going. The x-ray showed something in the top of one lung, and he had a blood sample taken to confirm the infection. The doctors also said that asthma was causing Hugh's breathing difficulties. He was treated with ventolin and another drug I can't remember the name of (something like avent) and had oxygen. For the pneumonia he had intravenous antibiotics, and something else to control the fever.
In the hospital we shared a room with a lovely little girl called Chaima and her mother. Chaima and Hugh would have their nebuliser masks at the same time, and we would watch their blood oxygen saturation monitors flash up at 100% for a few minutes. Then when the 02 got down to 91% the machine would start beeping.
For the night there were fold down beds for the mothers to sleep on, which made the room extremely squashy (nurses probably have to have a slimness test to see if they can squeeze through small spaces and reach long distances in order to work in rooms like that.) So I lay on my bed in my clothes and watched Hugh's breathing on the graph on the monitor. There wasn't much sleep to be had, but in the early hours I must have slept heavily, as I didn't hear the machine beeping when Hugh's 02 saturation dropped and the nurses put the oxygen mask on him.
By late Sunday morning Hugh had discovered that the playroom down the hallway had not only books, but a ball and some ride-on toys. He was feeling much better thank you, and his biggest problem was that he was running around too much. The nurses kept telling me that he was to rest and stay calm, but I don't think they told Hugh...

2 comments:

Fragola said...

I am so sorry to hear that Hugh has been very sick. I was anxious just reading it. Glad to hear he's picked up and is up to his toddler antics again!

Chez Speedies said...

Oh my God!! How absolutely terrifying for you. Thank goodness Hugh's ok.