When I last posted a week ago we were on in the car on the way back from a pretty kakky weekend. We went straight to the ER deciding that we’d better be safe than sorry…. Never once did I think our story would go this way.
The Dr saw The ginger first cos he was miz and Kat was just chilling. Diagnosis full blown tonsillitis!! We weren’t surprised. This is the second time this year so we’re on our way to a tonsillectomy I think.
Next was Kat and I really just wanted to check it wasn’t in her chest. Little was I prepared for what transpired!
The ER Dr was lovely and listened to her chest. She said a she was concerned about how laboured it was and when I said our paed was Dr Pather she said to me: well he happens to be upstairs I just wanna make a call to him.
Before I could wipe the crap out of my eyes we were admitted and Kat was having a chest x ray and a drip put in her foot.
Daddy Abs and I had to divide an conquer as he had the miz ginger and needed to get his script. So I was alone….
When we got to the ward they had to take bloods so they held my poor little person down and took blood from the crook of her arm. Then the nurse checked her foot drip and realised it wasn’t working so they pulled it out. Then they tried the other foot and then the left hand. Her veins were collapsing.
When they were preparing to go in for the fourth time daddy Abs walked through the door and I burst into tears and walked out the paeds Unit down the hall till I couldnt hear her screams and had myself a good ugly man cry!!
After that like most girls I was just fine 🙂
Her chest X-ray revealed a nasty bronchial pneumonia. The lungs were so inflamed that her liver was totally compressed and her diaphragm making it really hard for her to breathe.


What followed was three days of hell! No sleep and by that I mean none. Kat didn’t bounce back in the first 24 hrs which scared me and that first night I prayed practically all night. I didn’t sleep a wink worried that she would stop breathing. I managed two nights of no sleep not wanting to leave her side but eventually I started getting sick and my milk had practically dried up so I decided to sub out with daddy and who came in at 1am to give me 4 precious Hours sleep.
She was nebulised every 3 hrs and had physio twice a day. On the first day they suctioned 100mls of fluid out of her lungs. Everything she was subjected made my heart bleed just a little. But after a while you numb to it.
We walked the corridors for hours on end and it’s funny that as crap as it was God works in the most amazing ways because I finally got my precious quality time with my little girl that I so bitterly craved and had missed out on whilst on maternity leave. Bittersweet isn’t it.
She’s the most amazing little thing and even though you could see she wasn’t well and was uncomfortable with her drip hand being the one she soothed herself with, she still managed to smile and give me the odd giggle.

On Wednesday Dr Pather our paed agreed that we could go home and continue meds and nebulising at home. What an amazing man..he effectively saved our baby as I shudder to think what would’ve happened had we not gone to the ER and he not have been working on a Sunday in the paeds ward. You can see he has the most amazing passion for little people and also incredibly compassionate for the big people aka moms too. It’s so good to have a Dr for our little people that we can trust.
It took a few days and so we were home already when Kats test result came back and she tested positive for RSV which explains how what looked like a common cold turned to pneumonia so fast.
It’s been quite the chapter which I’m most thrilled to close. Very bittersweet as although its been tough we have been so blessed to have Gunny and Bugga ( daddy Abs’s folks) up with us. Gunny has been amazing looking after Kat while she gets properly better and I go back to work. Bugga aka grandpa has also been amazing fetching the ginger from play school.
I won’t lie I’m filled with dread for when they go home as next week I’m back to being on my own in the evenings. I’m also really stressed as I don’t know how we will cope if this happens again. Looking at getting a maid/nanny to assist but it’s a fine balance of finances/necessity/need.
The ginger’s school’s aftercare has been a real disappointment and is permanently taking breaks leaving us full time working moms with no full time maids with no solutions for care when they close. Also if Kat gets sick again I have no back up plan for her care.
So think of us because we really need to find a solution……
abdoantics 