Friday, April 10, 2009

Not so Top of the Pops

Leo calls them 'chicken pops' and has kept denying he has them, but his chicken pox are more problematic than we'd first thought. Indeed, we should have taken him into hospital as soon as we knew on Tuesday that he had chicken pox, and hence had to leave our holiday in Scotland. Leo should have started anti-viral drugs then, but me being me, I thought we had to assume 'normality' now he's getting further from his treatment.

As it is, Leo's been really poorly, as many kids get with chicken pox; he's also had a temperature of 40 and today was only taking sips of water if that. So I finally gave in and called the ward at the hospital and told them his temp was high, that he'd had chicken pox since Tuesday etc etc. They told us to go in for blood tests to check his immune system and it seems that the protocol is that within the first six months post-treatment, the part of his immune system which deals with viral infections such as chicken pox, is not yet strong enough to deal with it. Complications with children with low immune systems include infections of the brain and heart as well as meningitis.

What we didn't know was that he really needed at least 5 days of anti-viral drugs via an IV starting ASAP and so despite Leo's major protestations, the doctors managed to take blood and get a cannula into his hand. They gave him some painkillers and the anti-virals, and as soon as the painkillers kicked in, Leo finally managed to sleep and his temperature came down to 37.9.

So what we know now is that he'll be in for at least 5 days and he could be in for up to 10 days for IV drugs, depending on whether his body starts to fight the chicken pox itself and with the assistance of the drugs.

Hopefully the drugs will help the pox on his tongue and in his mouth go down, which means he'll be able to drink more and maybe even eat at some point. I just hope he just feels better soon.

Fingers crossed...