Tough week

Every time we end up in A&E there are always a barrage of questions thrown at us which I can understand as they need to get as much background information etc but it gets quite trying when the 3rd or 4th doctor comes in and repeats everything that was asked!! Why don't they read the notes that the very first doctor put on the notes instead of constantly asking us the same questions over and over and its hours before anything productive gets done... Also they always seem to ask me questions about his birth & my pregnancy which to me is strange as it has nothing to do with the matter at hand ?! What does my pregnancy issues have to do with him dehydrating?! And then after answering and explaining every question they then say " its OK we can just read his notes" !

Over the Easter holidays Roo ended up in A & E due to dehydration and needed a line put in...I warned them that Roo hated needles, hated being held down and that he would fight it no matter how poorly he was and that everytime we do a blood test it takes 5 of us to hold him down..the doctor said "its fine he be OK and I can do it quickly" ...Well it turned into a blood bath with Roo screaming hysterically and with four of us holding him down it took a good 20 mins just to get the line in and then bandaging it all up...The bed, nurses gloves/arms and clothes splattered with blood...You would have thought someone was being tortured at the amount of screaming from Roo...even worse the door was open so everyone had to walk pass our room to get to the rest of the A& E rooms from the waiting room so the terrified looks on the kids faces & worried looks on the parents faces said it all ....30 mins later I managed to get Roo calmed down and he takes an interest in Daddy's crisps which is amazing seeing he hadn't eaten in a week!

feeling sorry for himself after the battle to get the line in his hand...

After several hours Roo started to look a bit better thanks to the continuous fluids we were putting into him and after several conversations between the Neuro team and the A&E doctors they agreed that it wasn't the pressure in his brain that was making him poorly but that it was likely to be gastroenteritis...They agreed that we could take him home as staying in hospital wouldn't do Roo any good as he was struggling to cope and getting distressed so as long as we agreed to syringe Dioralyte every hour into him until he started drinking or if no better then back into hospital we could go home so we came home armed with plenty of Dioralyte and syringes...

I must praise the staff in the A&E department as they took their time with Roo and actually listened to me although they struggled a bit with the fact that Roo cannot communicate so they did keep asking me questions like "has he got a sore head?" I reply that I don't know as he cant tell me..."OK so has he been complaining of a sore tummy?" erm what part of no communication do you find difficult to understand?! I had to keep on reminding them that I knew he was in pain but I had no idea where as he cannot tell me  and they ask "how do I know he is in pain?! I explained that I was his mum and had learnt to read his body language but anyway communication or not is not normal for a child to cry all day long, sleep and refuse to eat or drink so surely that alone tells you that something is wrong...

One thing we do know is that a sick bowl as many uses like in here we are using it to prop up his Ipad! Daddy tried putting it on his head and doing a funny dance but Roo just screamed at him duly unimpressed....