It's Saturday afternoon and I'm sitting in the children's ward of Box Hill hospital next to Aurora, who is sitting in bed, watching Bee Movie on my laptop (update, she's now onto Tinkerbell). I'm on Steph's laptop writing this. The nurses have already given us a few weird looks (Them; "How many computers do you have?". Me; "Here, or in total?"). Anyway, it's the first chance I've had to sit back and recap the past week's events. Here's what happened...

Last Sunday, Aurora and I went to the footy. It was a lovely afternoon, and when we got home, she had a bit of a croaky voice, which I figured was down to yelling / shouting at the footy. Otherwise, she seemed fine. Off to bed she went, when later that night she started to have a horrible, seal-like cough. She started to have trouble swallowing and talking, so Steph rushed her off to the hospital (Knox). Four hours later they were home again, with a diagnosis of croup and having undergone a treatment of steroids and a nebuliser, it seemed as though although knocked around, she was going to be OK. Steph kept her home for the next few days, just in case.

On Thursday, Aurora was scheduled in for a minor operation. When she was born, she had a tiny hernia (a tear in the stomach muscle) under her belly button.`They attempted to fix it last year, but apparently the operation last year didn't work... so, we went in for a second try. After having had the croup earlier in the week, we made the hospital very aware of that - they said it wouldn't be a problem, only if Aurora had a fever (which she didn't)

The operation went pretty well - the hardest part was probably waiting for the operation and Aurora not being able to eat anything. She ended up having the operation around 11am on Thursday, came out of it OK, but complained of a sore tummy (which was to be expected!). The hospital did say however that when they took the tubes out from the anaesthetic, there was a fair bit of mucus on them. We took Aurora home and she went down for a sleep. About 30 minutes into her sleep she yelled out very upset, and we went in to find her (and her bed) absolutely covered in vomit. All through her hair, her pillow, pyjamas, sheets, etc. It wasn't pleasant (and Steph, the trooper, sorted it out - including having to wash Aurora's hair, without letting her get in the bath - as we need to keep her tummy dry until next week). An exhausted and zombie-like Aurora went back to sleep and a few hours later we woke her up for some dinner. She had a bit of a temperature at that point, but we figured that might just be a flow on effect from the operation. She went off to bed again and we checked on her at 10:30ish to give her some more pain meds. That's when it got a little bit hairy.

Aurora was really hot. Her fever was around 39, but she felt much hotter. Steph called the hospital while I lay down with her in bed. The biggest concern was that her breathing sounded quite shallow and really laboured. She was still knocked about from the anaesthetic as well, so she was drifting in and out of sleep at the drop of a hat. Steph and I decided that the breathing was too much of a concern, so for the second time in a week, Aurora was bundled up in her pyjamas and taken to the hospital (Box Hill this time). I stayed at home with Atticus who was sleeping.

Steph and Aurora were at the hospital for a bunch of time - I'm not sure exactly what happened - but at some stage in the middle of Thursday night they thought that Aurora had pneumonia and put her on oxygen. A few hours later (still the middle of the night), they took an x-ray of Aurora's chest and found that part of one of her lungs had collapsed. She was kept on oxygen and given ventolin as well to see if that would fix it. She still had a really high fever as well which was thought to be being caused by an underlying viral / bacterial infection, so a course of anti-biotics were started. She was also put on a drip to keep her fluids up.

Meanwhile, I was home, in bed, tossing and turning, having a fairly shit sleep stressing about what was happening. Steph SMS'd me to let me know that her and Aurora would be staying at the hospital for a while. Upon Atticus waking up on Friday morning, I gave him a bottle and then joined Aurora and Steph at the hospital. Poor Steph had only had about 40 minutes sleep for the night. Aurora had not much more than that. They both looked exhausted... and then Steph had the joy of having to breastfeed Atticus as well! Suffice to say, Friday (yesterday) was challenging.

Aurora was not at all herself yesterday. She had a hard time breathing and was really, really exhausted. No doubt she was still feeling the effects of the operation plus she'd barely slept for a day. The doctors wanted her to cough, as they thought that would help sort out her lung, but of course, having just had an operation on her stomach, it was really painful to cough. She didn't have the normal "Aurora spark" to her, and that in itself was heartbreaking for me to see. A few times when I was there, she'd just look at me, half in a daze and quietly utter "I love you Daddy". It was hard. She had the antibiotics in one of her hands, numbing agent on the other, so she couldn't really hold drink bottles, etc.

Steph went back to the house in the afternoon and I stayed with Aurora and Atticus at the hospital. We went for a little walk (literally probably about 15 metres) and that exhausted her. She had a rest, we read some stories, had a few chats, watched Dora on the portable DVD player (which after about 90 minutes the sound cut out, a puff of grey smoke emitted from the speakers and started to smell like burning plastic. Awesome). Her breathing wasn't too bad, so the doctors took her off oxygen to see how that went - and she's been off since (around 24 hours since then as I write this). More ventolin, more antibiotics, Steph came back and I went home with Atticus (and watched the company LiveMeeting). I did one more visit that night (for another breastfeed for Atticus) and then departed home to have dinner myself.

Overnight (Friday night/Saturday morning), Aurora's been poked and prodded a few more times, and her temperature has been up (only once) and down (mostly, thankfully). Her breathing is now good and her appetite seems to be coming back. She's starting to exhibit that "Aurora spark" again, and the doctors say she might even be able to head home tonight (she has another round of antibiotics at 3:30pm), but we're planning that she/we may very well be here again tonight.

Overall, this has been one of the more terrifying experiences of my life - particularly Thursday night and Friday morning. It's just devastating to see your child in pain, fighting to breathe. I certainly felt helpless and impotent. As I sit next to Aurora now watching her, she's probably back to about 60% of her "normal self". I feel so thankful and blessed that she's OK and feel completely overwhelmed in my love for her. Here's hoping that we're all back home soon and that this is the last emergency hospital trip we have for a while. Thank you to all who have offered help, support and thoughts over the last few days - each and every one has been appreciated.

Labels: Aurora