By this point Georgia was having bad chest pains from her heart which made her scream, which in turn stopped her breathing. Eventually she was admitted to St Marys until her surgery as she needed oxygen constantly.
How do you stop a baby crying when they are in pain? I tried to keep her calm all the time but it was just not possible.
As wonderful as St Marys staff were, I think they underestimated Georgia's condition. I felt like I was trying to prove how ill she was all the time. She was put in her own room by the entrance of the hospital, which happened to be really far away from the nurses station, so when I had to leave to put Josh to bed I was terrified she would cry and stop breathing and no one would know. She did have a sats monitor on her foot which alarmed when it didn't pick up a trace but a couple of times when I arrived back it was turned off! I hated leaving but I had too.
St Marys was a lonely place for me too. Georgia still slept most of the day so I just sat next to her and watched her all day. Sometimes I wondered if I would be better off having her at home. She stopped breathing at least 3 times a day and St Marys saw this as a normal occurrence for a heart baby. I agreed as I had nothing to measure it against.
One particular day she was so sick that I ran out of clothes for her, I decided to nip to the shops to buy her some more baby gro's as she had nothing to wear. As I left the hospital my car exploded! The fuel line had gone, it was the last thing I needed. I got it to the Ford garage, and left it with them. On hearing the story, one of the girls that worked in the rental part offered me a rental until my car was fixed for half price! You see there are some great people out there!
Realising that I need my car to be trustworthy I went back to the garage and enquired about getting a car on HP. I needed to be safe in the knowledge I could get Georgia to and from the hospital with no problems. 3 weeks later I had a trustworthy Ford car, which would see us through the journeys to Southampton.
On the Saurday before Georgia's surgery she was still an inpatient at St Marys. I asked them what time the Ambulance would be transferring her over on the following day. I was told then, and only then, that she was not being transferred so I would have to take her. So basically I would have to get on an hours ferry journey across the Solent with a baby that stopped breathing frequently and required oxygen?????? I was furious and threw a tantrum, those of you who have never seen a tantrum of mine before it is a bit like the incredible hulk! The Ward Sister went to call to see if we could have an ambulance, she returned 5 mins later to tell me that there were none available because they were all at the Isle Of Wight Festival. WHAT????? So every paediatric ambulance was at the Festival and were not able to transfer a small baby over? I don't think so. Can you imagine what it will be like if they close the Ocean Ward? Not only would we have taken Georgia on that hours ferry journey, it would also have been the car trip to the ends of the earth. People just didn't listen at all.
So on the Sunday morning Rob and I picked her up from St Marys and armed with a tank of oxygen we boarded the ferry. As expected she stopped breathing half way across the Solent, to make matters worse it was really busy. As I have said before, people are so quick to judge, we were stared at like we were mad. Can you imagine holding your child in your arms when she is blue and not breathing, while you are desperately trying to get an oxygen mask on her? To the ferry companies credit, one of the staff came over to help.
One thing I have forgotten to mention is that Georgia sweated, constantly. She was aways clammy. We bathed her, like Josh, every night but by morning her hair and skin was greasy, this is a heart thing. It's like the equivalent of me or you running everywhere, but her heart did it even when she slept. That armed with her continuous cough made sleeping for a long time hard for her so she tended to cat nap. Good for her, but not so good for us when we had to be up every 3 hours to feed her anyway. Every feed took at least half an hour too, then sometimes the meds clashed in between feeds so we would only get an hours sleep at the most.
On arrival at Southampton Hospital I could have literally skipped into the Ward, I was so happy we were finally there and that someone was going to do something for her. The nurse that was working on the reception desk was one that we knew very well from our previous stay, as we got to her I lumped this huge tank of oxygen on to the desk. She looked at me confused asking why I had it and I replied that it was the only way to get Georgia there safe.
She took us into the ward to Georgia's bed space as I was explaining her breathing. I got the impression that she was doubting the seriousness of it as St Marys had brushed over it. Anyway she said if Georgia had one of her 'episodes' then to ring the nurses bell.
We got settled in and packed all of Georgia's things in her little cupboard, saying hello to all the nurses and other mums and dad's.
Suddenly Georgia started to scream and started going blue. We pressed the nurses bell and within seconds Georgia was taken from my arms put on oxygen, there were at least 8 nurses and 3 doctors surrounding her. I knew it was bad. They reacted exactly how I thought they would, they tried her with a nebuliser but that didn't work either. The Surgeon came to see us shortly afterwards and advised us that due to the breathing problems they would want to cancel the surgery the following day, they were not happy to operate until they found out what was causing the respiratory arrests.
We were gutted, after all this hard work and time of watching her struggle, now we would have to wait longer. I understood why they couldn't do it but I was so fed up of waiting.
Poor Georgia was moved to the nursery so they could keep a close eye on her, this meant we couldn't sleep at her bedside, again she was on her own, but in the best possible place with the best possible people. Now we just had to wait for the respiratory team to look her over and reschedule surgery.
Once I got her to sleep that night and lowered her slowly into her hospital cot I breathed out, I felt like I had not taken a breath in so long. I felt safe now. I knew she was ill but just looking around me on that ward made it all better. To have nurses and doctors who know exactly what to do was such a relief. I knew they loved each and every little life that was under their care.
No comments:
Post a Comment