Back in hospital due to fitting

It’s nearly three weeks since my last update on the condition of our newborn baby daughter Abigail. Quite a bit has happened since then and I’d like to write a fuller update of events for you in the next day or two. In the meantime, I wanted to let you know about what's happened today. We were due for our first paediatric clinic appointment at 11am today with Abigail’s consultant for a check-up and progress review. The consultant gave Abby a thorough check-over and although physiologically she seemed to be doing well, concern was expressed at Abigail’s recent habit of turning her head quite violently to the right, stiffening her limbs and becoming very fractious. Abigail’s eyes also seemed to indicate again that all was not well.

We had been pleased that in the last week or so Abby had begun to cry properly for the first time, but in the last three days she has been quite miserable at times and nights have been very difficult. We had thought that she’d developed colic as she’d become very difficult to settle or feed overnight. Adding all these things together with her examination led the consultant to suspect that Abigail has been experiencing some sort of fitting again. The upshot is that Abby has been re-admitted to Queen Elizabeth Hospital today and is expected to remain there until at least Monday whilst doctors perform another EEG brain scan and put Abby on to a course of another anti-convulsive drug by IV line.

Obviously this is a big set-back for us having only had Abigail home for a few weeks. We’d also been pleased that she had seemed to respond well to being taken off her original medication completely before being discharged. The plus side is that at least an EEG is likely to be done relatively quickly – the consultant did say that she could order an outpatient test but that it may take 10 weeks to come through. With Abby being admitted it’s more likely to take a matter of days. Her current ‘fitting’ will not cause further brain damage but could impede her development and so doctors are keen to find out more as quickly as possible.