A Quiet Day

Today has been much less worrisome than the previous days. Oliver is still under the headbox, but the concentration of oxygen has slowly been reduced, while his blood oxygen saturation levels have remained high. He had some of the doctors guessing with his low heart rate, but they think they have an explanation. He looks fine, and has lost 1kg of fluid over the last 2 days, so we are happy to see our boy changing back to his normal self again. Mind you, his looking "healthy" is what postponed his diagnosis in the first place. Hopefully he will be out of the headbox tomorrow, though probably back on to nasal prongs. But we will atleast be able to cuddle him. We haven't had a cuddle for 2 days and I think we are all missing them. I'm sure mum will be keen to get back to breastfeeding and stop expressing.

Let me fill you in on what brought us to this point.

Just after Easter, Oliver got a little cold. This didn't appear to be anything to worry about. I think I remember us going to the doctor who confirmed our suspicions of a small cold. Combine that with the first two little teeth coming through his bottom gums and it was all a sound explanation for his cough, sniffles, ear rubbing, grizzling and breathing sounds.

16th April saw us up at the Princess Margeret Hospital for Children (PMH) emergency department after Oliver coughed up some brown gunk that looked a little like blood. It wasn't, but he was diagnosed with bronchiolitis. Nothing to do but ride it out.

A fairly enlarged lymph node behind his right ear took us to a local GP who told us it was just enlarged due to the cold. It would go down. A second lump around the back of his head had me heading for my anatomy books and our baby care books. Yes it isn't uncommon for children to get enlarged nodes, and for them to stay around and come and go, and yes we have some around the back of our skull. Having calmed our fears we were off to see our own GP the next week. She agreed with the other doctor and prescribed us antibiotics to try to reduce the size of the lymph nodes.

We went back for a check up the next week and although the node under his ear hadn't changed significantly, the one on the back of his skull had gone. The antibiotics were working. We stayed on them, with increasing reluctance, for five weeks. Each week we would head in for a check up. More nodes became enlarged in his groin. These too came and went and came back again, along with the one on the back of his skull.

During this time Oliver slowly became increasingly more clingy with his mum and occasionally his dad. He became more and more lethargic and disinterested in playing, especially by himself. He stopped rolling and would cry whenever he was placed on his tummy. Play became a very quiet and mum-and-dad initiated activity. Whereas he previously loved to play on his back on his play mat, wrestle his teddies, and explore his exersaucer, these soon became activities that induced crying. Sitting on his bottom with mum or dad was all that he would do.

Our third last visit to our GP saw a referral for an ultrasound. We had another appointment within a week and she ordered some blood tests from PMH so that she would have both those and the ultrasound by the time we came back on Friday. Karli and Oliver went and had the ultrasound on Thursday and after waiting around for a couple of hours and being stalled by the staff, she was told that the report was being sent straight to our GP and that she should go in to see them asap. This was a little unsettling. After a worried evening we headed back to the GP who told us that she didn't have all the blood tests back, but to head to PMH for some tests and to pack a bag as we would probably be admitted for a few nights. A finger prick test at PMH and a few hours waiting resulted in us being told that Oliver had low iron and to take him home and get him back on his solids, and into mince within the week.

So home we went. Karli pureed up a storm and we started feeding our little boy solids again. We had done previously but stopped after he became so miserable with it. He took to it OK, but soon became just as miserable. An exasperated call to Health Direct resulted in them telling Karli that she should just breastfeed him while he had his cold as this was really all he wanted while he was sick. A call to the Parenting Helpline gave the same story.

With an increasingly miserable little boy we decided to visit the paediatrician on Wednesday 1st July and get his take on the situation. After chasing down the ultrasound report and the blood test results, he rang Dr Angela Alessandri at PMH and asked if she would take a look at Oliver. We came in the next day and sat down with the lovely Dr Angela, who examined our little boy, asked us questions, and had some blood tests done. She sent us home and asked us to come back at 1pm on Friday to have another ultrasound done. That evening we received a call from Dr Angela asking us to come in at 9am with some clothes because she wanted to do a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy as well as a CT scan. She suspected that Oliver had a tumour that may be in his bone marrow. Our world was beginning to be turned upside down.

Friday saw us admitted to Ward 3B - Oncology. We met Iris, one of the social workers, who gave us a Redkite support bag and we prepared ourselves for what was to come for our little man. 2.00pm saw us sitting in a waiting room outside the CT room, staring blankly at the wall as we cuddled our little boy. It was all far too unbelievable. Karli handed our little boy over to the nurses and was allowed to watch as they gently placed our little boy under the first of 3 general anaesthetics he was to have within 8 days. We waited, and sent messages to friends, and cried, and paced, until our little boy was out and we were off back down to the ward. Fortunately we had been moved into a smaller and more private room. As we settled in for the evening it was so very unreal. Saturday saw our little boy receive a blood transfusion and, after being given the all clear, we headed home to return to the hospital on Monday at 8.30am. Our ride had just begun, and it would prove to be a long first leg.