We thought all was well with little Kayleigh for a while—on Saturday morning she hadn’t thrown up since 5:30 p.m. the previous afternoon, but we slept until nearly noon (I’d had to stay up with her until just past 1 a.m.). She still seemed sleep-dazed and remained on my lap, and then after having a nice drink just after 2 p.m., up it all came again. Just liquid, but poor thing!
Dale and I were triply worried since we knew about the surprise 50th anniversary party we (the three boys plus spouses) were throwing for Joy & Brian on Sunday. It was simply out of the question that one of us have to miss it because Kayleigh was sick, or worse yet that she transmit something to Joy or Brian and they get sick. Oh no. So when she went again Saturday afternoon, we were really worried that she was still not even keeping water down since it had been 21 hours from the most recent episode . . . Dale got on the phone to the NHS hotline while I bathed her, and they were great. Very detailed questions about her appearance and symptoms, and then they said we ought to get her up to someone to have a look to guard against dehydration and rule anything more serious out. They rang off and called back only five minutes later with an appointment for us at the Children’s Outpatient Ward at Basildon Hospital at 4:10 p.m.
Brian drove us up there so we didn’t have to worry about where to park, and we got straight in as everything was well marked. There was no one else waiting, so we were seen by a doctor within five minutes. He asked us a few questions and did a physical exam of Kayleigh, who was fantastic for him and answered all his questions (the only thing she wouldn’t do was cough for him). The conclusion was that she had viral gastritis, which meant that the stomach lining was inflamed and thus couldn’t hold as much. The key, he said, was to give her only a little (an ounce) every 30 minutes or so. But he said she could eat & drink whatever she wanted, just in small quantities. And he said adults didn’t have to worry about contracting it from her. Whew!
So we followed his advice and all has been well. She was still pretty subdued the rest of the day, but the more food she got the better she was. In the night she woke up only twice for a drink of water, and this morning (Sunday) she popped out of bed and was like a house on fire, no longer clinging to my lap and playing with everything and everyone. Yippee!
Posted by elizabeth at July 6, 2008 05:38 PM