I had the worst week of my life when the Doctor's office called me at past 6pm to give me the results of baby's blood test...
The week before we had already been booked off school (and mommy from work to take care of the little one) when Clarissa-Yvonne was diagnosed with an ear infection and tonsils.
As the week went on, she started to feel better and I was happy that I could send her back to school the following week...or so I thought!
It was Sunday afternoon when she started complaining about her tummy but since there was no fever I simply thought it was something she ate! When this continued into the night I decided to follow my instincts and get her to the hospital.
As we arrived at Medi-Clinic we were given a bed and her temperature clocked in at 38.8 degrees. They gave her a suppository and told us to wait an hour for the fever to break...when they came to check again she was worse off with a temperature of 39 degrees. It was then that they placed a wet towel on my baby and after another hour told us we can go home, even though she still had a fever of 38.4 degrees, and further instructed us to visit her doctor the following day.
By now it was past midnight, she was medicated and asleep and I had little energy to argue with the hospital staff as to why we are being sent away while she's clearly not OK and to add to that to further instruct us to go see our doctor while we were already in a hospital filled with doctors!
Moving on to the following day, her doctor examined her and then ordered a blood test. With Clarissa-Yvonne talking my ear off in the ride back home, I expected the results would be fine. He had however, made an appointment for us to get a sonar the next day just to make sure everything was indeed 100% OK!
It wasn't. My heart sank when I saw his number appear on my phone that evening, he mentioned something about high levels of potassium in the blood and said he would call a pediatrician with the results then call me back...
Panic took over as I wondered what all this means, and then the phone rang again...he said I had to get her to Lady Pohamba as soon as possible and that we'd have to spend the night there so they could follow up with more tests.
We ended up with a four night hospital stay and I cannot for the life me begin to imagine how parents have the strength in dealing with and handling a sick child!
I was so relieved when we were discharged the Thursday afternoon I was actually in tears. The days of worrying and concern and trying to be strong for her finally caught up to me..
In this moment my baby girl looked at me and asked me "Can parents also cry mommy?" She asked me why I was sad and I explained that those were happy tears, "Mommy is happy that you're OK!"
"And you're so proud of me right mommy?"
"Right baby!"
Besides the tears from all the blood tests and drip she was on, she was super strong throughout the entire ordeal and at some point told the nurses that she needs her blood back when they're done with it.
My strenght and thoughts go out to all the parents who have sick children out there, this was honestly the worst week of my entire life! I don't know how I would've made it through this week had it not been for the support of my family, friends and colleagues! Our hospital room was packed at every visiting hour and that means the entire world to me!
I am beyond pleased to announce that baby girl is back to school and back to chatting my ear off with endless stories about how much she enjoys 'climbing mountains' aka hiking and how she cannot wait to go to the farm again!
