Was this in the Plan?

So, one minute I am blogging about taking each day and enjoying the moment , and the next minute I walk into the ward one morning to be told by the nurse looking after Daisy that she had spiked a 40.4 degree temperature and was unwell.........great, another white knuckle ride again.



Of course everyone who knows Daisy well knows this pattern, we plan something, in this case, Andy going for a weekend to France with one of the children or we have another inpatient stay at Great Ormond Street booked and you can guarantee that Daisy will throw a spanner in the works. Of course this week it was a double whammy, weekend plans and inpatient stay so Daisy threw a double infection - candida in her bloodstream (you will remember from previous posts this is bad, bad, bad!) and a really bad urine infection , and for good measure streptococcus was isolated in her gastrostomy site. The bottom line is the Hickman Line (no pun intended) will have to be removed, candida sticks and you do not want to risk it creating fungal balls which settle in the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys - as I said, this one is bad.

She is smiling and gorgeous as ever which really belies her state - the infection is systemic, ie everywhere and requiring big doses of anti-fungal infusions which have really nasty side effects. On top of that she is back on antibiotics for the urine infection. These drugs together with the steroids and immunosuppressants do not make for a good combinations so her kidneys and liver are being monitored constantly. The only good thing is that we are going into GOS tomorrow so hopefully they can fit in a line change then, if the ward doctors can get their act together, I'm just keeping everything crossed that the endoscopy and jejunostomy can still go ahead as without these two procedures we will not know if we can stop the immunosuppressants and try and increase her feeds to get her time off the TPN. And time off the TPN means we can become eligible for the HPN programme - Home TPN and maybe a plan and a timeframe for coming home....

So many things keep moving and changing, many not under our control, the stress is starting to get to us all. Thank goodness Andy had a chance to get away and recharge his batteries, I do not want to be away from Daisy so knowing that at least one of us is getting a break is a comfort. I am getting fed up of lots of things about our institutionalised life however and have started to compile a list, many of which will be familiar with friends who read this blog:-

In no particular order...

- having to ask permission to do things, eg like getting Daisy's growth hormone out of the fridge

-not being able to take my cup of tea into her room

-dragging a huge IV pole with me and holding 3 lines to make sure they do not go on the floor everywhere we go

-trying to keep 3 other children entertained while spending time with Daisy after school

-not being able to spend any time with Andy, particularly on the weekends when one or other of us is at the hospital and the other is at home with the 3 children

-having to leave Daisy at night

-not being able to have her home and to be together as a family

-living our lives in a goldfish bowl with no chance of any privacy

Anyway, whinge over. I am hoping that this week we may leave GOS with a bit of a plan and way forward. The longer Daisy is in hospital the more susceptible she is going to be to infections, but she cannot come out until she is stable. We have to go at her pace but at the same time I want the doctors to remember that she is a 4 year old girl with a life to live and she cannot continue to live it confined to a cubicle in hospital. If her life is going to be short then I want it to be full of memories of fun with her family at home....