Meningitis-Know the facts

April 16th 2006 at 7:53pm my beautiful baby boy was born, i already had a nearly 3 year old daughter and now my family was complete.

It didn’t matter to me that once again I was single I had coped alone with my daughter and I will cope alone with them both.
We got into a routine quite quickly my son was feeding every 2 hours, would be awake for about 30 min and would sleep for the rest of the time I thought I had it made.

Summer was fast approaching so one day along with my sister and some friends took our children to the park where there was a paddling pool as it was a really hot day. I didn’t think anything of my son sleeping all day as he still woke for feeds and nappy changes he was only 11 weeks old little did I know what the next 24 hours would bring.
The next day my son was still sleepy had been all night and was slowly taking less and less in his feeds so I went over to see my mum. We tried getting him to have water and he wouldn’t. His temperature was slightly high and at that point he started to scream a sound I will never forget. The more he screamed the hotter he became to the point my skin was red from holding him so I decided to call primary care as I knew in my stomach something wasn’t right.
The nurse on the phone told me to give him some calpol and gave me an appointment for a couple of hours time. I did as I was told but it didn’t help so I took him off to the hospital.
When we saw a gp he didn’t know what was wrong so sent us to the larger hospital in the closest city to get him checked out. I was petrified and all I could think of was he’s got meningitis and is going to die.

He didn’t have all the symptoms not even a rash but I just knew it. We got to the hospital about 20 min later and the amazing staff took over. They gave him some calpol then we managed to get some liquid into him and after doing some test decided to take him for blood tests and a lumbar puncture.

When he came out the room with the nurse my worse fears were confirmed my son was covered head to foot in a purple rash even without the test results I knew and I had never been more frightened in my life.

A doctor took me to the parents room to talk as other Drs and nurses started treatment to save my son’s life telling me the next 24-48 hours were critical.

I genuinely don’t know how I managed to get through those hours sitting by his bedside seeing all these tubes coming of my son, not being able to cuddle and console him just praying that he made it through. I was offered a priest to bless him incase he didn’t make and I struggled not to break further.

12 hours after he was admitted my son opened his eyes and smiled as I called a nurse she took his temperature and noted it had come down a little. He wasnt feeding so had a drip in for fluids but for me that decrease was hope.
Over the next 24 hours the medicine was doing it’s job the rash not so strong and the temperature slowly coming down. After another 12 hours he had a feed- a real turning point and I knew he was going to make it.

It was hard when the nurses changed his canula as he would smile and when I asked why the said “all he knew was pain and that’s the only human contact he can really have” that moment broke my heart . my son continued to get better and better defying the odds and 2 weeks later became an out-patient.

Nobody could believe that this 11 week old baby boy who was ready to be given his last rites was leaving childrens ward. It was 2 years before he was completely given the all clear. I now have a gorgeous, cheeky, happy and most importantly healthy 11 year old getting ready to start high school in september. Its true what they say “you don’t know how strong you are until it’s the only choice you have”