The past 2 weeks have been really tough for poor William - and us! Where to start?
Well firstly William got quite a bad cough about 10 days ago and as he was coughing so much he was then vomiting - we ended up taking him to the hospital incase it was a chest infection. His chest was clear but the doctors were worried incase it turned into something so they put him on antibiotics.
They also noticed an infection in his gastrostomy site so he was put on another antibiotic for that at the same time.
As usual the antibiotics gave him horrendous diarrhoea (can't spell that sorry!) which resulted in his poor little bottom becoming bright red and sore to the point that it was weeping and he was screaming in pain. Sudocreme etc just didn't touch it. Add this to the fact that he was still coughing and vomiting and back we went to hospital on the Wednesday.
They changed his antibiotics as the original one clearly wasn't helping but again his chest was clear! That afternoon we had an appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon but I'll fill you in on that later on.
So back home, William now on different medication and still coughing, still vomiting and still very sore bum. Following day he was much the same but we were due to go to a wedding in Crawley, myself and Kev got ourselves dressed up ready while William was having his nap only to find his fingers bright blue when he woke up which was worrying, and then yet again he vomited and poo'd everywhere. Clearly something really not right so I phoned the hospital and was told to bring him straight down!
So out of the wedding outfits and into the car we go. End up on Beach ward for the 3rd time in a week and this time see 2 more doctors who again say his chest is clear and advise us to take him off the antibiotics before sending us on our way!
Poor William was due to be the star attraction and turn on the Christmas lights in east preston that day but he was too unwell to go :(
It's now 5 days later and his bottom is much better and not as red and sore as it was but he is still vomiting and now it's not just when he coughs - it seems to be during or after almost every meal which is not good as he is clearly losing weight now. So if things don't change I guess we will be back down to the hospital again in the next few days!
So back to our visit to the orthopaedic surgeon... We were referred there are Williams last hip x-ray showed his right hip was starting to move out of place. This is quite common in children with CP who aren't weight bearing etc. We went to the appointment expecting him to have a quick look and say they would keep an eye on it so we were both rather stunned when he said it was already out and he would need to refer William to The Evelina Children's hospital in London as he is likely to need major surgery to correct it.
William should have been weight bearing since the age of one and as yu may have gathered from previous blog posts, he hasn't been able to ad his standing frame was unsuitable for him and despite constant requests still hasn't been changed or adapted for him. He has probably only been able to stand 5-6 times in 2 years. It makes me really resent the Physio service at Worthing hospital as it was such a rush to get him a frame and it was very important at that time but as soon as we had one, no one could give two hoots as to whether we could use it. Seems like they were just covering themselves - well in this case it's backfired hugely hasn't it.
So now we just wait for the appointment for the Evelina but in the meantime he can't weight bare at all so no kneeling, standing etc just sitting in his chair. Although I think that's all the physios actually want all the children to be able to do round here.
Anyway, that's all rather grim so how about something to cheer us all up after that???
William did manage to roll over last week, he did it on his own with me just telling him what to do. I didn't touch him at all just encouraged him and told him to move his arm / bend his knee etc etc. When he managed it he seemed rather shocked and didn't really know what to do nice he was there!! He hasn't managed it again on his own yet but that might be because he's been poorly.
I'm sure more has happened in the past few weeks but I seem to have just been faced with vomit, poo and a huge pile of washing so I can't remember much else!
Another update soon!
Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Monday, 21 November 2011
EEG results???
Well last weeks EEG wasn't great. William was given melatonin to make him go to sleep but William being William he stayed awake throughout!
He did have a seizure whilst the probes were on so we presumed that would record some seizure activity but we have since had a call from the paediatrician with the results. It showed that Williams brain pattern is massively abnormal which we were expecting (doesn't make it any nicer to hear though) but there was no recorded seizure activity on the report including the time when he had what was visible to us as a seizure. Very strange!
So we are booked in for an appointment with the neurologist on Wednesday in the vague hope she may have some answers! Either way we are planning to request another MRI as he's not had one since he was teeny tiny (about 7 days old) and it wasn't very clear. Maybe a clearer MRI will show exactly what damage there is and give some answers?! Probably not but worth a try!
We also had a chair assessment last week but it wasn't very successful. The chair wasn't the right size for William and he hated it - screamed the place down! So we wont be getting one of those! But on the positive side, the lady from wheelchair services came to the appointment and was able to see William in his other chair and was so impressed that she has agreed that he does need another one on a buggy base so he can go out and about in it. So Chailey will hopefully be getting the go ahead to start making a new one soon!
William has been doing very well this week though, he had OT today and his therapist, Jane, was very pleased with him. He seems to be coming along really well in his chair and concentrates so hard to try his best to do what is asked of him. I think with a lot more time and a lot more encouragement he could definately learn a lot. He is a very determined little boy that's for sure!
The last few weeks when Williams been in the bath with his Daddy they've been working on pushing toys away from him and he seems to understand the concept and what is required, he then concentrates so hard to do it and sometimes he manages but other times he concentrates so hard he goes off into one of his "seizures" bless him, I am so proud of him for persevering and not just getting cross whenever he can't get his body to do what he wants.
This week is a little less hectic than last week, only OT, Physio, neurologist, school for parents and three sessions at nursery to fit in along with a photograph for the local paper and 2 Christmas parties! Honestly don't know how I could possibly get a job with all that going on!!
The Facebook auction is now up and running so don't forget to check it out www.Facebook.com/pleasehelpustohelpwilliam.
He did have a seizure whilst the probes were on so we presumed that would record some seizure activity but we have since had a call from the paediatrician with the results. It showed that Williams brain pattern is massively abnormal which we were expecting (doesn't make it any nicer to hear though) but there was no recorded seizure activity on the report including the time when he had what was visible to us as a seizure. Very strange!
So we are booked in for an appointment with the neurologist on Wednesday in the vague hope she may have some answers! Either way we are planning to request another MRI as he's not had one since he was teeny tiny (about 7 days old) and it wasn't very clear. Maybe a clearer MRI will show exactly what damage there is and give some answers?! Probably not but worth a try!
We also had a chair assessment last week but it wasn't very successful. The chair wasn't the right size for William and he hated it - screamed the place down! So we wont be getting one of those! But on the positive side, the lady from wheelchair services came to the appointment and was able to see William in his other chair and was so impressed that she has agreed that he does need another one on a buggy base so he can go out and about in it. So Chailey will hopefully be getting the go ahead to start making a new one soon!
William has been doing very well this week though, he had OT today and his therapist, Jane, was very pleased with him. He seems to be coming along really well in his chair and concentrates so hard to try his best to do what is asked of him. I think with a lot more time and a lot more encouragement he could definately learn a lot. He is a very determined little boy that's for sure!
The last few weeks when Williams been in the bath with his Daddy they've been working on pushing toys away from him and he seems to understand the concept and what is required, he then concentrates so hard to do it and sometimes he manages but other times he concentrates so hard he goes off into one of his "seizures" bless him, I am so proud of him for persevering and not just getting cross whenever he can't get his body to do what he wants.
This week is a little less hectic than last week, only OT, Physio, neurologist, school for parents and three sessions at nursery to fit in along with a photograph for the local paper and 2 Christmas parties! Honestly don't know how I could possibly get a job with all that going on!!
The Facebook auction is now up and running so don't forget to check it out www.Facebook.com/pleasehelpustohelpwilliam.
Monday, 14 November 2011
Seizure city
Williams seizures have increased. A lot. He was having about 4 or 5 a day but recently he's had 11 just at nursery and he's only there for 3 hours! So it's more like 20-25 a day which is really scary.
We've seen the paediatrician and his medications have been increased but that's not made any difference at all. So the next step is steroids but that has no guarantee of getting on top of them. So today we are off to Haywards Heath to have a sleep EEG. William will be given melatonin which is a hormone type drug which will send him to sleep and then lots of tiny electrical wires will be stuck onto his head to measure his brainwaves!
Once we've got the results of that the doctors can see whether anything has changed since his last one and they'll know how much steroids he needs!
Luckily he hasn't had a big one recently but the little ones although they don't look scary actually scare the hell out of us as we don't know what damage it is causing to his brain. He's started to become really upset after them now which isn't nice either.
Williams seizures aren't typical like the ones we all see on the TV where the person is convulsing on the floor. They are strange to see and most people don't notice them, apart from friends and family who have seen them before and people who understand epilepsy!
His head turns to one side and drops down and his arms fling out to the side - sometimes his eyes twitch, sometimes his head twitches, sometimes he makes groaning sounds, sometimes he laughs and sometimes he cries. The main thing is that his body, which is usually so stiff, goes completely floppy and his arms are so stiff you can't bend them, his head locks in place and there is nothing you can do to move it. Sometimes he is still with you in that he will make eye contact and follow you if you move but other times he is away with the fairies somewhere we would never know of. It's scary.
There are no specific triggers. He can have them when he's happy, when he's sad, when he's tried, when he's alert etc etc. He even has them in his sleep now which isn't great and makes him scream the place down.
We've seen them so many times now that we try to make light of them when there are people about so as not to scare them too.
Anyway, hopefully today's EEG will give us some answers about where to go next and maybe we may be able to take control of them at some point and give William a break from them.
If anyone has any magic spells to stop them please let us know!!
On a lighter note. The auction and wine tasting went really well. We raised an amazing £2400 at the auction which is just brilliant! Our next Facebook auction starts this weekend (Saturday) so take a look www.Facebook.com/pleasehelpustohelpwilliam.
People are always asking me where I get the enthusiasm for all this fundraising and organising things and it's simple. The more time I spend thinking about things like that, the less time I have to think about the seizures, the tests, the drugs, the Physio and of course the future.
Xx
We've seen the paediatrician and his medications have been increased but that's not made any difference at all. So the next step is steroids but that has no guarantee of getting on top of them. So today we are off to Haywards Heath to have a sleep EEG. William will be given melatonin which is a hormone type drug which will send him to sleep and then lots of tiny electrical wires will be stuck onto his head to measure his brainwaves!
Once we've got the results of that the doctors can see whether anything has changed since his last one and they'll know how much steroids he needs!
Luckily he hasn't had a big one recently but the little ones although they don't look scary actually scare the hell out of us as we don't know what damage it is causing to his brain. He's started to become really upset after them now which isn't nice either.
Williams seizures aren't typical like the ones we all see on the TV where the person is convulsing on the floor. They are strange to see and most people don't notice them, apart from friends and family who have seen them before and people who understand epilepsy!
His head turns to one side and drops down and his arms fling out to the side - sometimes his eyes twitch, sometimes his head twitches, sometimes he makes groaning sounds, sometimes he laughs and sometimes he cries. The main thing is that his body, which is usually so stiff, goes completely floppy and his arms are so stiff you can't bend them, his head locks in place and there is nothing you can do to move it. Sometimes he is still with you in that he will make eye contact and follow you if you move but other times he is away with the fairies somewhere we would never know of. It's scary.
There are no specific triggers. He can have them when he's happy, when he's sad, when he's tried, when he's alert etc etc. He even has them in his sleep now which isn't great and makes him scream the place down.
We've seen them so many times now that we try to make light of them when there are people about so as not to scare them too.
Anyway, hopefully today's EEG will give us some answers about where to go next and maybe we may be able to take control of them at some point and give William a break from them.
If anyone has any magic spells to stop them please let us know!!
On a lighter note. The auction and wine tasting went really well. We raised an amazing £2400 at the auction which is just brilliant! Our next Facebook auction starts this weekend (Saturday) so take a look www.Facebook.com/pleasehelpustohelpwilliam.
People are always asking me where I get the enthusiasm for all this fundraising and organising things and it's simple. The more time I spend thinking about things like that, the less time I have to think about the seizures, the tests, the drugs, the Physio and of course the future.
Xx
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