Two days at home and then re-admission

I’m sorry to have to tell you that after just two days at home with us, Abigail has this morning been readmitted to the Queen Elizabeth hospital with a chest infection. Last night that she was having difficulty with her secretions and couldn’t seem to cough up the fluids in her oesophagus. Overnight Abby’s breathing became quite laboured – even in her sleep – and this morning her respiration was sounding very ‘bubbly’ indeed.

On the advice of our homecare nurse we took Abigail back to the paediatric ward where she was then examined by her consultant. By that time she’d also got a very high temperature, high heart rate and increased respiration. Ironically, she doesn’t seem to have had any major seizure episodes during this. Our theory of what is going on seems to be shared by the doctors: that the Nissens surgical procedure used to prevent her from vomiting is now preventing anything at all (including saliva secretions) from going down into the stomach. Eventually a ‘pool’ of secretions backs up into her throat whereupon she gags and gets into difficulty. It’s highly likely that at some point she has aspirated (breathed in) some of this mucus into her lungs and this has caused an infection.

Abby has been given paracetamol for the fever which seems to be lessening now. This afternoon Abby will undergo a chest x-ray to determine the full extent of the infection as well as beginning a course of intra-muscular antibiotics by injection to try to fend off the infection more rapidly. Doctors just don't know how long Abigail will remain in hospital, and we were already aware that infections of this type can potentially be very dangerous for a child with Abigail’s problems as it can be difficult for them to fight infections.

Clearly this is a big set-back for Abby and us. Rebekah and Joshua had particularly enjoyed having Abby home and Becky was very unhappy that she had to go back into hospital again. At least we know that we did the right thing by taking her back when we did and that she has brilliant medical staff caring for her who know and love her. We were also fortunate that it was Abby’s actual consultant who happened to be the doctor on call on the ward this morning.

Needless to say we really enjoyed those few days at home with Abby and we seemed to be managing fine caring for her. She was a delight to have in the home with us and Becky and Josh really doted on her. We just hope that Abigail can overcome this new obstacle and get back home to us again soon.