It started with a fever

This Thursday marks two weeks since Daniel was released from Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh and let me tell you, the 11 nights he spent in the hospital showed me just how fragile my boy can be but also extremely lucky that he is now home and well.

Daniel first got a fever in the middle of the night on the 9th of September, this fever continued and he would not eat so two days later we took him to the doctor who told us that it was just a virus and he should feel better by the Sunday. Well on the Sunday (12th September) Daniel woke up at 5am crying and would not stop until we took him to the hospital to see the doctor there. Well you can imagine by this point we were getting worried however this increased when the doctor sent Daniel to the children's ward to be monitored more closely. 

A few hours later Daniel was extremely unwell and the doctors were telling us that it could be meningitis. This has to be one of the worse things a doctor could tell you about your child. We had the horrible task of phoning family members both here and America and letting them know that Daniel could have meningitis.  After a horrible night spent watching Daniel crying and screaming at the nurses who where checking on him every hour, a ray of light came the next day when the senior doctor come to see Daniel.

After some time examining Daniel and talking with his student doctors he goes on to tell us that he is sure Daniel does not have meningitis but a very serious case of pneumonia which has caused a pleural effusion (excess fluid that accumulates in the fluid-filled space that surrounds the lungs) on Daniel's left lung. Now this caused two emotions for Luke and I, the first one being great joy as it was not meningitis but also fear as Daniel was going to be rushed to the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh so that the doctors there could decide if Daniel would need a chest drain to remove the excess fluid.

Once we arrived at Sick Kids, the doctors gave Daniel a ultrasound of his lung and decided that there was not enough fluid to drain and that they would treat the infection with antibiotics. Daniel was sent to Ward 1 which was a big open ward designed for children with respiratory problems, diabetic problems and sleeping problems. The next few days were spent sitting next to Daniel's bed, holding him while the nurses gave him his antibiotics through his cannula and just waiting for the antibiotics to work. A second scan showed that the fluid was decreasing and this gave us some hope that the antibiotics were working even though Daniel was still not eating or drinking much. 

Well on Friday the 18th of September we were in for a shock when a third scan showed that not only had the fluid increased but the infection had caused it to thicken which meant that they had no choice but to put in a chest drain. So that night Daniel went to theater and had a chest drain inserted into the left side of his chest. Every 12 hours for 3 days Daniel had a chemical inserted up the drain (and the drain closed for 4 hours and then reopened) to help dissolve the fluid. Let me say that this was the most heart breaking thing to watch.  As you can imagine having 40ml of chemical inserted into your chest is not a nice feeling and Daniel would cry for the 4 hours that this chemical was in his chest (remember that this happened every 12 hours for 3 days) before they open the drain to remove it. It was the longest three days however it was doing its job and by the end of the three days the fluid in his chest was mostly gone. 

The chest drain was keep in until Wednesday the 23rd of September and by this point Daniel was feeling a lot better to the point that he was able to get out of bed and go play in the toy room, he was also eating more and talking.  The next day the doctors gave us the best news we could have hoped for - we could go home and let me tell you we were out of the hospital within half an hour. 

Daniel has continued his antibiotics for the past two weeks and will go for a X-ray in the next few days to confirm that the pneumonia has cleared from his lung however he is feeling a lot better and the Daniel that we know and love is back to normal.

Although what Daniel had was very serious, we were very lucky that the doctors knew what it was and how to fix it. Staying in the hospital with Daniel were some children who were suffering from life changing problems. One little girl was going for a liver transplant, another girl had been born with a hole in the top of her mouth and therefore could not breath without help. Then there was the 7 month old baby boy who had been in the hospital ward 16 days and they still did not know what was wrong with him. 

Thank you to every one who helped and said prayers during the past month. The situation was hard however we are getting back to normal and I am happy with the knowledge that Daniel will not remember what happened to him in the hospital.