Mr Sheep and the clowns

Hope and I are still in hospital . she is a little brighter today in that her heart rending shriek has eased but she is very listless and floppy and fed up and then suddenly alert, hungry then not then sick, then hot then cold and so on .. nothing concrete still waiting for test results to come back.

They are going to do the lumbar puncture again tomorrow – yesterday’s fluid was contaminated with blood cos she was wriggling so badly. They have to bend her literally in half to open out the vertebrae in her spine to get the needle inbetween the tiny bones and she didn’t like being bent. She has a yellow sticking plaster on her back now with little animals on it .. I find it hard to look at something so jolly knowing how much trauma she experienced getting it.

I’ve sung her all the songs I can think of, the lyrics go completely out of the window at this point … I could sing along to songs but ‘Love me tender’ had alot of tum ti tums in it and even ‘Truly Scrumptious’ went awol in the middle …

It’s hard work and lonely looking after a poorly baby. The staff on the ward are helpful and kind, the lovely lady that gave Hope a pink teddy bear and a little purple knitted hat (knitted by women in America and sent to Addenbrookes … are there not enough knitters in England??? note to self must learn again) came to see her this evening which was kind, and a frined called in at lunchtime and gave me a very welcome hug. Roy bought Mr Sheep, Hope’s favourite furry creature, in from her little pink Moses basket at home and he now sits in the cot by the pink teddy and a baby sheep (they’re black and white so she can see them and she just seems to like small furry sheep!!) .My poor mother with her broken wrist managed to walk round to the hospital as well and let me go and have a shower which was nice. I should be sleeping now but my mind is just all over the place and I’ve found that my laptop picks up the free wifi from the hospital concourse 100 yards away.

Anyway – she is having IV antibiotics ‘broad spectrum’ type which target everything and if she has had meningitis will have bashed it into submission.

The children’s ward has a garden with exciting games in but Hope wasn’t in the mood … because she’s being barrier nursed she can’t go in the children’s day room and we couldn’t leave the room when the hospital clowns came and performed just outside our room so we peered plaintively out through the glass.

Poor little Hope … not sure if she’s in a holiday camp or boot camp bless her. She’s lying now on her pink and white car fleecy blanket from America under an old blanket from home surrounded by her furry friends with a red light on her foot monitoring her pulse and blood oxygen level, and her huge canola all bandaged up like a cartoon bandage on her little arm .. but she’s peaceful and asleep and I best get to bed too. My little pull down bed beside her is fairly comfortable and I’m lucky to be able to be beside her.

Not looking forward to tomorrow and lumbar puncture try again but the consultants have both said it needs doing but I’ll interrogate them again in the morning if she seems better. Fingers crossed.

Night.

Advertisement