Monday 23 May 2005

"Don't panic but..."

"...would you like an ambulance sent for your daughter...?" These were the candid words that greeted me down the telephone line yesterday evening from NHSDirect. I must say the staff were very reassuring, helpful, informative, etc, etc. But those words made me shudder.

How did we get to that? Let me enlighten you with a mini diary of events for my youngest daughter and myself; you'll understand just how many single magpies I've been noticing in recent days...

Saturday: I experienced the same chest and back pains as recent weeks meaning that my pleurisy had not cleared up (BTW many thanks for all your get well wishes!).

Monday: I visited my doctor who prescribed more antibiotics & told me that I would need to take time off work self-certified because "it's cheaper" than giving out a doctor's note.

Wednesday: My DD had her pre-school booster vaccination meaning an injection in both arms for no less than 7 (yes, seven) different illnesses at the same time. (I had previously booked annual leave from work for this so I could stay with her, but as it turned out I was off sick anyway. No problem, I thought, they'll just cancel it when I return to work.)

Thursday: DD's upper left arm became swollen to maximum capacity and bright red.

Friday: The swelling on my DD's arm started to turn into brown lumpy patches and became painful. This resulted in the evening being spent at the emergency doctor's waiting to be seen and antibiotics (the same as mine!) prescribed for infection in the arm - now where has that come from??

Saturday: DD fell headlong on the pavement whilst running her fastest to go into
Gymbobs, and received nasty scuffs and bruising to both knees - although she managed not to hurt her arm further.

Sunday: was spent at our local (overcrowded and under-resourced) hospital all evening due to DD having sudden difficulty breathing possibly caused by antibiotics - hence the title of this post. I have to say that the staff, again, were excellent, but the middle of the night is the only time we've ever seen parking spaces there, and when we arrived at A&E reception it was so full there were no seats left (and there are lots of them)...

Monday: I poured myself a (thankfully white) cup of water from the machine at work only to find unexpected strings of light green algae suspended in it. (Needless to say the servicing company has been called & we're all buying bottled drinks.) Then I discovered that I couldn't claim back my annual leave mentioned earlier as the time off was self-certified and not covered by a doctor's note...

Tracy, it doesn't seem that I'm saluting these magpies in the correct way.

Somebody please tell me it'll all be ok soon... please. ;-(

Hopefully normal knitting service will resume soon...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a crap few days you've had.
Your pleurisy will get better.
Your daughter's arm will heal, as will her knees.
You were going to take time off anyway and have learnt a valuable lesson about work/days off/sick leave.
And hopefully you've not caught anything nasty off the water machine at work!

I suggest you just pull out your knitting now and put it down to experience!

Dawn:)

Becky said...

Oh my goodness - you poor thing - what an awful time you've been having. Are you both feeling better now ? I hope so.

littlelixie said...

OMG! There's a reason why people 'joke' about HR standing for human remains. Go back to the doc and demand a note. Then you'll have an extra day to spend mucking about with your daughter once you're both better. (Which I hope is soon!)