Bleurgh

It's taken me a while to get this post up, we've been ill so energy and time have been in short supply. Hopefully normal service will resume this week. This is a long one as I'm updating you all on our week. I must warn you though, you'll see lots of the words "sick" and "vomit" - but that's what our week has consisted of really.

The last time I published a blog post it was Sunday night and we were off to London on the Monday morning for Martha's cardiac review. Those of you who follow our various social media accounts will know that we never actually made it to London.

I woke up in the middle of the night on Sunday to the sound of Martha stirring in her Moses basket (yes

she's so tiny she still fits in there) and as I tried to put her dummy in her mouth I heard her vomit. So we strip her down and put clean clothes on her and clean bedding in her bed. About an hour or so later I heard her vomit again, so she has another change of clothes. Not even half an hour later - she does it again.

Now she hadn't vomited since she caught a bug at the end of March so there was no way I could blame this on her reflux. We weren't due to catch the train on Monday until 09:22 and so I told Mark that unless Martha kept down her breakfast feed we weren't travelling to London that day; there is no way we could take her on the train incase she vomited all over herself and her pram and us. There is no way we could have packed enough spare clothes for all of us.

She wasn't fussed on her breakfast bottle, she was in great spirits, however I struggled to get her to drink 75ml which she then proceeded to vomit all over me. London was cancelled.

I called our Doctor's surgery and asked for Dioralyte on prescription so that we could re-start the 24hr fluid challenge, but Martha had been without her NG tube since she took it our herself on the Friday and I couldn't expect her to appreciate the taste of Dioralyte. I sent her with her Dad to Ysbyty Gwynedd to have a new tube inserted and for them to do some quick observations. They left the house at 10am...at 4:30pm I made my way to the Hospital to see what was taking so long.

They had only given Martha 10ml of Dioralyte ORALLY earlier in the afternoon and had been put back on her milk feed. Shortly after I arrived Martha vomited again. I'd only sent Mark with her to have a new NG tube put in - I was planning on taking care of the fluid challenge myself at home and we'd have been on hour 6 out of 24 by then...yet here I was starting from scratch.

They wouldn't discharge us without having a urine sample from Martha, in order to pee she needed fluids and diuretics and at that time she wasn't having either. Mark had spent the afternoon with a funnel patiently waiting for Martha to do her thing. Eventually they let us put a cotton wool ball in her nappy and we'd squeeze it to do a quick dipstick test and to send a sample to the lab. The dipstick test came back clear and Martha was tolerating Dioralyte so at 8pm she was finally discharged.

She had a good night's sleep, but she was sick twice on Tuesday morning. I tested the tube for her 4pm dose of Dioralyte but it had moved, it was testing at 7 on the pH strips. She was screaming crying because she was so hungry so I had no choice but to re-start the milk feeds. I started slowly and only giving her 25ml which she tolerated so an hour later I gave her some more. She sick again all over Mark at a couple of hours later, but she tolerated her 10pm feed. As we were only giving her tiny amounts she needed one last feed before bed - but she had brought it all back up before we'd even put her in bed.

I woke up ill on Wednesday morning; Mark got up with the girls and took the morning off work, my mam took over after lunch. Martha had stopped being sick but wasn't too bothered with her milk. She was like that for a few days last time - it takes her a few days to get her appetite back I think. We went to my mam's for Dinner as we do every Wednesday; Isabella was her usual self playing at being the entertainer. Then suddenly she stopped and I knew just by looking at her that she was going to be sick, just in time I carried her to my mam's kitchen sink. My Dad is the best person to look after you when your sick, which his huge arms he could hold Isabella steady and keep her hair out of her face, and is so sweet with her.

There was a bit of a musical beds situation in our house that night; as I was already sick I stayed in our bed with Isabella...Mark slept in Isabella's room with Martha. At around 1:30am Isabella woke up full of beans, talking ten to the dozen before snatching the glass of water next to the bed and tanking it. A couple of hours later she's sick again (luckily our bed, duvet and pillows were all lined with towels)

On Thursday morning Isabella was in a foul mood, she was like an addict in withdrawal begging for a panad which I was reluctant to give her. I let her have some water just to see how she would keep that down. A little while later I made us both some toast which she wolfed down and more importantly kept down. By lunchtime on Thursday she was back to her old self. I was perking up too, more importantly so was Martha. It's amazing that Mark and Osh haven't been struck down but I'm not counting my chickens before they hatch.

Today was Friday and we are almost back to normal. Our Doctors surgery rang to say that Ysbyty Gwynedd had faxed them the result of Martha's urine test and she'd need a course of antibiotics. 5ml twice daily of Trimethoprim - it smells vile. I asked for it in tablet form but they weren't able to prescribe it that way. So now as well as giving her Amilloride, Furosemide and Amiodarone in her milk feed - we have to mix in this vile antibiotics as well.

The last time Martha was sick she had a bit of a growth spurt afterwards, I hope it doesn't happen again this time or the poor thing won't have any clothes to wear.

GM

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