Well you'll be pleased to know that it all ended well. Tom got over his illness, life returned to some semblance of normality and we all caught flights to snowy Switzerland and a week's skiing.
This return to normality was not as straightforward as one might have hoped. It took us via a GP who wasn't taking any chances, a referral to A&E where we encountered an equally risk-averse SHO (and supervising Registrar) and an overnight stay for Tom and Nik in the all-too-familiar Queen's Medical Centre. That is one of the assorted legacies of a medical history that features a life-threatening illness and febrile convulsions.
One is not dismissed as an over-anxious parent. One is not dispatched with a slightly patronising suggestion to administer Calpol and leave it a day or two. Indeed, everyone is at great pains to reassure you that you've done the right thing and they would do the exact same.
As it was, it was just a temperature - Tom was bouncing around on his hospital bed the next morning in a manner that suggested he was well on the road to recovery. There had been no need to get that anxious. There had been no real need to instigate a chain of events that led to expensive rescheduling of flights and an uncomfortable, stressful sleepless night for Nik - one that, coincidentally, featured the UK's largest earthquake for many years.
An alarming, terror-inducing portent of something much worse... that passed very quickly and
is all but forgotten now.
The same goes for the earthquake.
So what will happen next time Tom gets a temperature? Will we cope a little better? I don't know. If anyone has any strategies we'd love to hear them.
One thing that reassures me is looking at pictures like this, taken a week after this little drama.
3 comments:
Great Picture, Tom! What a good skier you must be already!
As for your parents, I suspect poor Tom will have to go through several childhood illness before you become slightly (and probably only slightly) less anxious. I suspect you will develop very subtle diagnostic skills that help you grade into different levels of urgency illness that to others all look the same. Each illness successfully endured is a victory for Tom and you. Sorry not to be more cheerful, but my goodness it is lovely to see the photo.
That is a great pic! I'm so glad you were able to go and have a good time after the stressful days you endured leading up to the trip. I cannot imagine what you've been through how it continues to affect your lives. I'm glad to hear that the medical community there takes it so seriously. I feel pretty confident in asserting that here in the states the situation you were in would not have stirred nearly enough attention or care. One would need be very very ill to be taken so seriously.
Great job skiing Tom! Be well!
Glad to hear Tom is feeling better! (And hopefully Mom and Dad are too).
Tom looks like a natural on those skis. He is getting so big!
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