Of floods and fevers

Just as the flood waters in England and Wales seem to be rising with all the rain this week, so do Adam's fevers seem to be going up and up with no sign of abating. And in the case of both flood and fever, the only thing you can really do is wait. Maddeningly!!

I finally brought Adam in to hospital again today at noon, mainly because his temp was again over the threshold the hospital had given me (38.5) and he had started coughing. Not badly, but he also wouldn't eat his breakfast and was laying around looking pathetic. When I called the hospital though, they told me that his neutrophils (a component of white blood cells that respond to infection) were only 0.3. This is even lower than the other day and properly "neutropenic", i.e. Adam has no resistance to anything now and will need hospital support once again until his body gets stronger.

As anyone who has taken their child into hospital knows, though, Adam was absolutely perfect all afternoon. No temp, ate all his lunch. The consultant Dr King even gave me a ribbing about jumping the gun when he came in. Right before he told me we'd be in "for a whilie" which is Scottish for a while. Not, as he said, "a wee whilie", but "a whilie". So that means, well, nothing really except be patient and wait for test results to come back and blood counts to go up and temperatures to go down.

Wait. Just like those down south whose homes are flooded are having to do. Only this is really not a crisis like that, this is not our whole life going up in muddy water. This is just annoying. This is just inconvenient, logistically difficult for our family and hard to get things done. This makes us feel disconnected and puts the pressure up for Daddy who still has lots of obligations at work to complete. Including a trip down south to the flood-hit lands for a viva--for somebody else whose life hangs in the balance, or at least their professional life!

Sometimes I can't believe how interconnected we all are...racing around in our own rat races and having minor and major impacts on others by what happens in our own lives. Being impacted by others, by the weather or travel chaos. And here I am, with loads of time to do things for other people and no way to do it! Or so it seems...maybe I will just have to get creative....

Anyway, back to Adam. His temp this evening was 39.5, i.e. "way high". And he had trouble eating his dinner because his mouth is more sore, poor soul. What to do? Wait. Apparently. And go visit the lifts in the meantime of course. :)