Hospital...

 On 18th April, my daughter was taken in to hospital again as her condition deteriorated.  After a barrage of tests yet again - ECG, CT scan, X-ray, bloods, and an echiocardiogram - there followed the most frightening 24 hours of my life as we were told she had either a hole in the heart, a blood clot on the lungs, as well as the lung inflammation, and it was potentially life-threatening.  Her oxygen levels were seriously low and her breathing fast and very shallow.

After a dreadful night in the respiratory ward watching her struggle to breath(sleeping in a chair when you are freaking out is nigh on impossible) my daughter  was moved upstairs to a more specialised ward where the prognosis was not quite so bad.  Her test results had been sent to the Royal Brompton hospital in London and the diagnosis received back from them was that there was nothing wrong with her heart other than the strain of dealing with the lung inflammation.  The CT scan showed she did not have a clot on her lungs.  So that left the lung inflammation - they still do not know the cause of it.  We were asked if she had been exposed to anything unusual such as chemicals, building work, new pets, to which the answer was no, not to my knowledge.

She has been treated with strong antibiotics, oxygen, and for the past 3 days steroids.  The turning point came 24 hours after the first steroid dose - she slept for 9 hours straight and she began to perk up and her oxygen levels rise.  After sleeping on a mattress on the floor for 2 nights, Friday night I managed to go home for a much needed shower and some sleep.  Yesterday morning we turned up as she was eating a large breakfast and dancing along to the music onthe radio with one of the nurses.  By the late afternoon, she had finally got our of bed to walk to the toilet by herself (she had been bedbound, hooked up to machinery,  and had the indignity of wearing nappies and using a bedpan, which caused her extreme embarrassment and distress) and was then able to sit in a chair to eat her dinner and watch a dvd. We've been told when she can manage without being attached to oxygen, she can come home, hopefully within a few days.

I still have a ream of questions for our GP surgery regarding the run up to this - why did no-one take me seriously about her cough?  I also am in the middle of  researching into whether or not the fact there has been a sewage leak into our waterways (that I only found out about yesterday) might have some connection.

Looking forward to seeing her this morning - will she be tap dancing down the corridor?