Cycle 3 - Day 18

No improvements today unfortunately and two more Ng tubes!

Last night didn't go too well. Niamh fell asleep very late around midnight, woke up 30 minutes later crying. Within a couple of minutes she was vomiting and having another loose nappy. Once all cleaned up, she went back to sleep relatively quickly but seem quite unsettled through the night. Her coughing which started a few days ago seems to be getting worse. It kept waking her up. When I checked her temperature at 5.30am, it was 38.8 again. The nurse gave her some paracetamol around 6am which helped to settle her back down for a couple of hours.

The day nurse placed a new Ng tube down Niamh's nose around 9.30am. It went in first go despite Niamh's coughing. Niamh wasn't very well in the morning, the coughing is annoying her plus her bottom is very sore from all the loose nappies. Probably some other pain too but not sure where. By 12, her temperature was up again, so more calpol.

After a little sleep early afternoon, she seemed a little better. She sat up on a chair for a while playing with water and syringes, read a few books but wasn't interested in any other toys.

This evening her temperature was up again, so more calpol. Her Ng tube came out again around 7ish pm. She now has a new one again.

The doctor came in the afternoon and listened to my concerns about Niamh's temperatures, coughing, high respiratory rate and general unwellness. She said that they would do a nasal swab for swine flu and other types of flu as a precaution and also send her for a chest x-ray. The nasal swab was done around 4.30pm so we don't have the results yet. Niamh had the flu vaccine back in November which includes swine flu so we are strongly hoping that the swab will come back negative.

The chest x-ray took place about 45 mins ago (9.45pm) and we don't have the results yet either. Patience is such a virtue. Just talked to Alex who is staying with Niamh tonight and he said that Niamh really enjoyed her trip out of the isolation room to the xray. She was hoping for a ride on the bike but unfortunately there was no time.

Her white cells are slightly up today 0.4 and neutrophils 0.3. The CRP is now down to 29 so downward trend is continuing which is good. So why the persistent temperature????

It is now 10.30pm, Niamh is feeling a bit better (thanks to the wonderful calpol) although her temperature hasn't gone down yet. She is sitting up reading the BNF.