MattGlover.com

It was one of those weekends that had been highlighted in our calendar for months. We had tickets to see The Lion King in Melbourne and had planned a nice dinner, organised the baby sitters etc. All was good.

Then my two sons and I came down with something. Jared had a snotty nose and loss of apetite for a few days, but then bounced back. Thomas and I, however, got worse with each day. High fever, achy joints, snotty nose, sore throat, headaches - we had the works. And it was difficult to pick who was whinging the most.

So Katrina and I made the decision to give our tickets to Mum and Dad and instead, stay home and try and shake this bug. In hindsight, it was one of the best decisions I thinkn we have ever made.

We went to bed early, but it was hard to sleep. Thomas was waking up every 40 minutes or so in tears, waking Jared up in the process and making and early night turn quickly into a late one. About 9:30 or so, I went in to Thomas again and found him convulsing in the bed. I grabbed him and sat him up as he vomitted everywhere. The little guy was burning up. A temperature of 41 C. We tried to cool him down, but the shaking continued. Frightened, and confused, we called the ambulance, not really knowing what was happening, but terrified for our little boy.

The ambulance arrived and the guys decided to take him to hospital. Katrina had to stay home to feed Jared, so I rode in the back of the ambulance with Thomas. By now, Thomas was exhausted, and fell asleep for most of the journey. I was feeling sick in more ways than one, but the adrenilin kept me going. We arrived at Knox hospital emergency department at about 10:00pm.

The nurses and doctor took him to a bed, stripped him down and began a series of tests. They inserted a drip, took blood, did this and that. Thomas often called out “It’s hurting daddy” but was very brave through the whole thing. About half an hour after we arrived at emergency, my drugs began to wear off and I could feel my temperature beginning to sky-rocket too. Soon after, I was flat on the floor after utilising some sort of hospital container as a vomit catcher. My temperature was exactly the same as Thomas’. What a pair!

Anyway, the testing and examinations finished at about 3:00am in the morning. Dad arrived about then to sit with us, which was really nice.

The paediatrician admitted Thomas to hospital for IV anitbiotic treatment. I stayed with him, “sleeping” on the fold out couch thing beside his bed. We were finally allowed to come home on Monday afternoon.

The tests didn’t reveal anything of note and the doctors are still not sure what was wrong. Thomas has to continue penicillin treatment for the next week and visit the doctors every week too. But today, apart from being very tired, he is back to his cheeky little self.

The night after we got home was the first time Katrina and I had really had a chance to sit down and talk about what had happened. I told her about the emergency room. She told me about how frightened she was at home with Jared, watching the ambulance drive away. We cried a lot about what might have been.

I didn’t sleep well that night. The place was too quiet. I wanted to go and sleep in Thomas’ room so I could hear him breathing.

Nothing can prepare you for this part of being a parent. Nothing.