Having the Sickies

It's been a long and stressful week.

Our little Nomi hasn't been well. She caught a cold/cough from Noey last weekend, but whereas he bounced back from it fairly quickly, she's been battling the symptoms all week. I always dread it when she falls ill as her fevers tend to be high (above 39°C) and prolonged. The poor girl was also coughing nasty phlegmy sounding coughs, which, over the past few days, got bad enough to affect her sleep -- and mine.

We were worried enough at one point to bring her down to KK in the middle of the night to get her checked out. After waiting ages to get a blood test done and see a doctor, we were told that there was no infection and that it was probably a viral fever that could last up to a week. Well, the fever didn't go away, so we went to see the Paed yesterday and guess what? It turns out she does have an infection and it's the onset of Pneumonia.

DD was the one who brought her to the Paed and I can tell you my heart just stopped when he texted me the diagnosis. What ensued was a mad rush to Mt A to get an x-ray and consult her regular Paed on the need for admission. It was a totally crazy morning. Our doctor didn't say it, but I knew she thought I should have brought Naomi in to see her earlier and that we would have picked this up sooner. The Mummy guilt was already telling me the same thing. (I love our Paed by the way. It's just that appointments are always full and the parking situation at Mt A is so bad that I try to avoid going there as much as possible.)

Anyway. The good news is that our Paed thought it was possible to treat Nomi at home without needing to admit her, so we were able to take her home, albeit armed with antibiotics and the nebulizer. The little girl hates being nebbed but it's just got to be done. She already seems much better, which is a relief. And we are not going back to KK A&E again.

With the lack of sleep and our busy morning, I only caught up with the news on the Sandy Hook shooting in the afternoon. And cried, like every parent would. The thought of my babies being sick enough to need hospitalisation is stressful enough. The thought that they might just never come home makes me sick to the stomach.

At that point I was glad that I had both my children to hold. They didn't understand why Mummy was so sombre, but accepted the cuddles gladly while we took time to pray for the families who lost someone they loved in the tragedy. I think my kids will be dealing with extra hugs for a while.