In hospital again

Raphael had a hard night on Thursday 31/5. He coughed up mucus into his CPAP mask and we think that he may have inhaled some back into his lungs. He didn't have a temperature but he was starting to cough, reminding us of previous times when we had to admit him to hospital. After taking the mask off and putting him on his stomach he coughed up a lot more mucus. Annie and I couldn't agree on whether to refit his mask again and so we called on a home care nurse again. The nurse visited us and had a listen for any problems in his lungs and we eventually refitted his mask. The rest of the night was generally uneventful (apart from a few "high leak" mask alarms)

Early Friday morning (1/6) we called on the home care nurse again because we found that Raphael had a high temperature. Sure enough we packed up and went into hospital again and dumped our other kids on one of our baby sitters. He was inspected by a doctor and a chest x-ray and blood was taken. The verdict was that Raphael probably just has a viral infection that isn't causing pneumonia yet but given his history, and condition, it would be wise to admit him over night to monitor him if he gets worse.

Our paediatrician was on the paediatric ward and so we managed to ask her our two burning questions about the surgery coming up on the 12/6 (it has been brought forward from the 14/6). We wanted to know what people can eat after having fundoplications and we wanted to make sure that our preferred anaesthetist was going to be able to perform the anaesthesia on the modified surgical date. Her answers put our minds at rest and we are all ready to proceed with the surgery on 12th of June.

Later that day a registrar tried unsuccessfully to insert an intravenous line to give him antibiotics (just in case). Eventually he was given an injection into his muscle to slowly release antibiotics over a period of twenty four hours. Apparently this is much more painful for the child and so it is blended with a local anaesthetic to make the pain go away quickly. The irony is that the anaesthetic causes more pain while the injection is being given.