Saturday the 26th of January- RS-virus day 1

I slept down on the sofa to watch over him. Or I should have written, I was supposed to sleep on the sofa. James was crying on and off all night and vomited. He was really anxious and I had only one hour sleep that night. In the morning he had 38.7 C. Of course I knew James had to go to the hospital to have fluid before his saturation dropped. Arriving at child ER, we had help at ones. It took them too long time to put the drip in which annoyed me. I was puzzled. We went in with James after calling the hospital to book off his operation. He had vomited the small amounts he had coming slowly in to him by the pump. The paediatrician took one look at him and listened on his lungs. She said it is probably a RS-virus. Seriously? I thought she was daft. He had had4 shots in 4 months against the RS-virus. I had heard a RS child before and James did not sound stuffy in his airways, by ear anyways. He had vomited a lot for me it was stomach flu. Oxygen was ordinated because his saturation was lower than he usually is. They inhaled James with adrenaline to free his airways. The test for RS made it clear, it was positive. The cardiologist Thomas Higgins looked sympathetic on us when came inside the room. He turned to the other doctor and she said he was rs-positive. He looked just as disappointed as us and went “oh no not that! . Doctor Higgins (originally American) had to question the staff twice why James had not been connected to a drip yet, he empathised the importance and it had o go in quickly James was of course signed in . When we walked out from the emergency room I had James in my arms with oxygen cone by his face and after us came the drip. I could hear the other mums go o poor thing etc.I hate when they stare like he is a freak show though. I thought to myself, blimey this is nothing and other people react to see it. I have gone mental! We finally had a room. Annie a nurse from ward 67 followed us and she was going to be with him over the evening. It felt reassuring to know who it was. She works in the cardiology ward so he was definitely in good hands.
James was doing fine, I was not over the top concerned. In a way I think another parent with a healthy child have been more concerned at that point than me. When Thomas H looked at him he said he had bad colour and slighter fast breathing. Thing is, I am used to see James with more or less bad colour and fast breathing. I have counted James breathing frequency too many times and it has been not over the top more than a little while. Since it was not his heart that was alarming I was relaxed at that point. We were informed; James had to be watched by staff over night. We had asked if Nigel’s parents could stay with him for a couple of hours so we could pop over to the party and get something to eat. If we did not show up at the party we would have to compensate and pay DHL for the expenses. At the same time James was doing really well and we knew this was the last time in a long time we could go out together. It was totally fine for the staff and they said Mum and Dad did not need to stay with James since he was watched over all the time by staff anyways. So we all went home at 17.00. Nigel and I got ourselves ready for the party and rushed out. We were not in the party mood of course. We went there to eat, had some entertainment and worried about James. I called several times to the ward and James was doing great. I felt sick inside, I asked myself and Nigel several times what we were doing there. As Nigel said, there are staff with him at all times and we can’t do anything, he is doing fine and we will be only in the way. I still felt like an awful mother but in the same time I thought if this is what I need to do to relax for a while so I can be a stronger mummy for James, I can stay for a while. We headed back at 23.45 and we were back at the hospital at 00.30. Felt weird to walk down the corridor in high heels and a little black dress. Finally we could see him. I realised being in the hospital with him during the evening would have been useless anyways. He was in a smaller examination room with a tiny friend who also had the RS-virus and a nurse was by their beds. We were greeted by the staff. James was sleeping heavily with a plastic hood/tent over his upper body where they also gave him oxygen support. We were both calmed and relaxed when we saw him. We went home to get some sleep. I was exhausted after just been having one hour of sleep the other night and the mental worry. Nigel was exhausted and sleepy because he is a man ;o)