Accident and emergency

Guess where I was last night? The hospital.

The youngest was admitted to the short stay department with acute Epstein Barr virus AND rhinovirus (aka glandular fever AND a cold). Her spleen and liver are both enlarged and she feels terrible.

My ex sat with her in the afternoon and I took over parenting duties in the evening.

The doctors did lots of blood tests, put her on a drip and pumped her full of steroids.

Someone came with paperwork, gowned up with a mask and gloves. They were too scared to cross the threshold into her room, until the blood tests came back and confirmed she didn’t have something really scary, so I had to go out into the corridor.

It was at that point I decided maybe I should wear a mask too.

Soon afterwards the night nurse came around and shut the door to the room to “reduce the chances of transmission”.

Blimey.

The blood tests showed no reduction in the levels of stuff that was elevated, but her fever was gone, so she was discharged.

There’s nothing else that can be done to treat glandular fever. You just have to wait it out and hope it doesn’t leave you with long-term fatigue issues.

I finally dropped her to her dad’s place after 9pm and headed home via Woolies to pick up food for the dogs’ dinner and a turkey for Christmas, because I was worried that supplies might run out.

Then I hauled the dogs around the block for their last wee of the day and held down squirming Charlie to put ointment in his eyes to treat his never-ending conjunctivitis.

When I got to bed the damn insomnia kicked in and I did my regular toss and turn for a few hours, trying to decompress from another stressful day of work and home issues.

Tired.

Two more working days to go for the year.

Not quite sure yet how the youngest’s diagnosis impacts Christmas plans.

Never a dull moment.

Song of the day: Crowded House “Pineapple head”