Not-So-Meningococcal

So last weekend, we had our first major health scare with either of our boys. Although it wasn't too scary. Our little Charlie Bear, who is now nine weeks old, was suspected of having meningococcal meningitis, and was rewarded with a two day hospital stay. He wasn't sick, it was all due to a dodgy looking rash on his leg, but shout out to the John Hunter for taking every precaution with our baby.

Our friends, Jill & Rob and their two little girls, and Nikki, were over for dinner last Saturday night, so we could celebrate Rob finishing his internship and Nikki handing in the first draft of her masters thesis. We had barely eaten dinner when I was changing Charlie, and I spotted a purply rash on his leg. It hadn't been there when I'd last changed him, and it looked "not right". I brought him out to show John, and he said we'd just wait and see how it went in the morning. I showed Jill and Rob, and we did the "glass test". Usually, a rash will disappear if you press on it - this rash didn't. I still wasn't hugely concerned, as Charlie looked completely healthy, but the more I looked at it and thought about how dangerous meningococcal can be, I started to panic, as did John.

We decided to take him up to the hospital, expecting to be told everything was fine, and to be back in half an hour. Thankfully, our darling friends could stay with Alex and put him to bed until we got home. As we were walking to our car, I remembered our next door neighbour is a doctor, so we quickly ducked in. He looked at Charlie and said he looked fine, but it wouldn't hurt to get him checked out at the hospital.

As soon as we showed up at the emergency room and said our almost-nine week old had a non-blanching rash, they took us straight back into a room, and a paediatric doctor looked at him. Yet again, he said the rash is a concern, but he looks healthy, so most likely isn't meningococcal, but to take blood just in case.

So we got taken back into a pretty scary area, where they stripped off our bub, attached three heart monitor sticky things, a blood oxygen monitor to his foot, and then put a cannula in. I wish no one the agony of watching their tiny baby screaming while they get a needle shoved in their hand. Particularly when the first try didn't work and they had to try again in the other hand. Unpleasant, to the say the least.

The doctor was undecided about whether to give him antibiotics to cover all bases, but told us we'd most likely be here overnight for observation in any case. John called his parents to go and pick up Alex so our friends could go home, and we were ushered to the paediatric emergency room, where we sat and slept for the next five hours.

Finally, the paediatrician came, looked at his rash and again was very concerned, but put at ease by the fact he was laying there smiling. She wanted to play it safe, so Charlie was given a dose of antibiotics via his cannula, and we were taken to a ward at about 4:30am. There were no beds left in paediatrics, so we had to stay in the adolescent ward. There was a pull-out bed, thankfully, but only one of us could stay. I, having the boobs, won, and John headed home for a few hours of rest.

So we were pretty much stuck in Charlie's room, as he had to be isolated, and couldn't really have visitors, just in case. All of the doctors and nurses kept telling us they didn't think it was meningococcal, but they had to take the precaution. Another paediatrician saw Charlie about lunchtime, and decided he needed another dose of antibiotics at 3am the next morning, so another night in hospital was in order.

The meningococcal bacteria takes 48 hours to culture, so we couldn't get an answer until the next day, in any case. The doctors told us that it was most likely some random virus that was causing the rash, or some other bacteria, but the rash was starting to clear up, either of its own accord or because of the antibiotics.

I know I shouldn't say this, but I was so bored for the entire time we were in hospital. We could barely leave the room, Charlie was asleep for most of the time, and they didn't turn our tv on until the Sunday afternoon. I did many a crossword and sudoku. I probably wouldn't have been as bored if I hadn't guessed Charlie was completely fine and meningococcal free. But it was terrible being away from Alex for such a long time, and it was, quite frankly, incredibly boring.

Thankfully, on Monday, we were given permission to go home by Overly Officious Know-It-All Murse (we took to naming each of the nurses - he was our least favourite). The final meningococcal test wouldn't be complete until that night, but he'd had two doses of the antibiotics, so on the small chance the final test was positive, he wouldn't be infectious, and we'd just have to come back up to the hospital for more antibiotics.

So good to be home with both of my boys. The final test was of course negative. Charlie seems none the worse, other than two little bruises for the needles on his hands. Alex has been absolutely feral all week, possibly due to being separated from me and John for three nights. Hopefully that will stop soon. I have not had a fun week...

I am, however, very thankful, to be home with my two healthy little men.