Chest infection - but not too serious

You know how it is. You don’t get an update for weeks and then two come along at once. We just wanted to update you on some minor news this afternoon. Abby’s chesty cough seems to have got quite a bit worse in the last two days which is no surprise as the rest of the family have had colds and throat infections – three of us are on antibiotics!

Yesterday we asked our community homecare nurse to come and give Abigail the once over as we suspected the beginnings of another chest infection. He confirmed that there did appear to be some mucus in the base of each lung and suggested that we see how she was overnight. In the meantime he booked an appointment for this morning at the emergency day clinic so that we wouldn’t have to wait in A&E if she needed to be brought in. Doctors reiterated the important signs to look out for, particularly laboured breathing. Abby was clearly nowhere near as bad as her last infection, but we did want to catch any new development early on this time. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a great night. Abby was awake and restless until around 5.30am and although she wasn’t particularly laboured in her breathing, we did feel that the ‘bubbly’ noises and coughing were getting worse.

Nix took Abigail to the clinic this morning and was fortunate to be seen by Dr Lord, who is Abby’s consultant. After a thorough examination she felt that there was indeed the early signs of a chest infection but that it was nothing like as advanced as on the last occasion. Abby has therefore been put onto a course of antibiotics but has not been admitted. We are to keep a close eye on her at home over the next few days, but doctors expect the treatment to fend off any worsening infection. At the moment we only see this as a minor setback and feel happy that we were justified in alerting the medical staff when we did.