Friday Focus 13/04/18 – A worrying couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks have been quite a worrying time for us with Jessica’s health. She’s been unwell on and off since going back to school. We were hoping that having a break over the Easter holidays would help her start to pick up again. Unfortunately, this hasn’t been the case. She’s had moments of being brighter and having a little more energy, but they’ve been interspersed with moments when she’s just been unwell and exhausted.

 

 

We took things fairly easy for our week away on the Isle of Wight. Staying in a cottage made it easier to allow Jessica to rest. She was fairly happy getting out and about for a while, as long as she was in her buggy. We were quite concerned though about her continued lack of energy, and the nasty cough that she was still struggling with. We had a chat with the cardiac nurses in Southampton and as a result, her cardiac check-up was moved forward from June to the end of this month.

 

Jessica and Sophie were both very excited about having Auntie Fizz and cousins Ebony and Erin come to stay this week. We’d planned a day out at Chessington. Jessica seemed to enjoy it, although she spent most of the time in her buggy and only managed a couple of rides. As we were heading home though, she had a prolonged coughing fit which left her struggling to breathe in the back of the car. We headed straight to the nearest A&E at St Peter’s in Chertsey, just a few minutes away. They were absolutely brilliant. Within three minutes of our arrival, Jessica was in a room surrounded by doctors and nurses, being put on oxygen and given salbutamol inhalers and various other meds to help ease the tightness in her chest so she could breathe more easily. Thankfully, she was stabilised quite quickly but it was the scariest time I’ve ever had with her outside of the post-surgery rollercoaster ride in PICU.

 

She spent a couple of days in high dependency on the children’s ward being treated for viral-induced wheeze and a chest infection. We came home yesterday evening with a big bag of meds. I’m used to the routine of giving regular meds but I’ve had to write down a meds schedule and put it on the fridge to keep track of all the ones she needs to have over the next few days! She’s still got a nasty cough but hopefully all the meds will help her finally start getting well again.

 

 

Things I have loved over the Easter holidays:

• Watching Sophie build a sandcastle at Alum Bay.

 

 

• A trip on the Isle of Wight steam railway.

 

 

• Hunting for geocaches.

 

• Visiting Godshill model village.

 

 

• Playing board games in the evenings at our holiday cottage.

 

• A day out at Blackgang Chine and the weather being warm enough to be able to shed coats for a while.

 

 

• Hubby being able to feel Peanut moving for the first time.

 

• Watching Jessica and Sophie have fun making their own mosaics at Brading Roman Villa.

 

 

• Doing some flower-themed crafts with Jessica and Sophie.

 

• Spending time with my twin sister and nieces.