And I'm back!

Hellooooo! I missed you all so much, though I followed your stories while I was away (not always could comment!) I will have a series of posts coming, including travelling with an 18 month old, Fabulous Cali, Cyber Friends, Apple Bug and The 10 days on my own. So stay tuned!

In this one post, I want to tell you about the scariest moment with Oliver yet.
As I landed in London from Boston on Saturday at about 6am local time, I texted Mike to let him know I had a nice flight and asked how the night went (rough time with Oliver in my absence, teething, general unsettled child, fever, indigestion etc in the space of 10 days). His text back was (with some editing to make it clear) "Don't worry- in  the hospital. Oliver had a fever of 40.4 (104.7 F) and abdominal pain (gas). Taken chest X-ray & bloods, results in 1hour. Oliver sleeping. Temp 37 (normal). He had woken due to pain in his belly and was inconsolable - hard belly. Now the belly is soft again."

Now, what would you have done? Panic of course. My connection wasn't for another 5 hours (five hours!!) but I just bought a new ticket with a different airline which got me to Dublin at about 10 am. I took a taxi and went straight to the hospital. I had not slept at all, but the adrenaline at this stage was so high it was keeping me going. By the time I got there, we knew bloods were not too bad, with a couple of values out of range indicating either a bacterial or a viral infection. It was not a surgical problem and the X-rays were clear. I sent Mike home (he was the shadow of himself at this stage) and never left Oliver out of my sight. He was sleeping, and so so small and pale in the bed. We had a single room with a bed for a parent to stay the night. When he woke later, he was so happy to see me, but too weak to stand up, my heart was in pieces. I fed him a bit while he was lying down and very slowly he got a bit of strength back. His fever spiked again though not as high as during the night, but the consultant suggested a spinal tap to rule out more dangerous conditions and also to avoid giving him antibiotics without a real need for him. I was completely on board. I assisted during the procedure and was able to hold Oliver in position while singing to him. It was over very quickly and I am sure it would have been much worse for me if I had waited outside the room. As they collected the fluid I saw immediately it was clear, and relaxed straight away. The consultant brought the sample down to the lab himself for micro-analysis and very quickly let me know that we had nothing to worry about, it was definitely something viral and we just had to keep his temp down. Oliver bounced back very quickly, had a good night sleep (a part for the nurse taking his temperature every 2 hours), no more fever and by Sunday morning he was climbing everything available in the room! When the doctor came around, he was very happy that the worse was over and sent us home! My house never felt so safe and comfortable, my bed, oh my bed! I missed you so much! And so the last couple of days between the jet lag, the sleep deprivation, the worrying and the relief, felt like they lasted a week.

Oh, by the way, I have started my FET preparation in the midst of all this too!