Monday 22 July 2013

A Sunday afternoon with a paramedic team!

Saturday was an absolutely roasting day and I'd taken the little ones out for the day to a fair.
We were as sensible as can be, lots of drinks, hats, suncream and shade whenever we could but it was a scorcher of a day! 
Blake (aged 4) had made a polite request for a happy meal for his evening meal - now he'd been very good, definitely treat worthy , desperate for a minion toy and to be honest, the heat certainly didn't make me want to cook! 
We got a drive-thru and the little people nibbled a few chips on the way home but when we got back, Blake just laid on the floor and said he felt poorly. 

Blake being the worlds most fussiest eater made us at first wonder if this was a random get out of eating clause, although with food being a happy meal I thought this odd! It didn't take long to confirm he was truly not well and by 7pm he was all tucked up in bed asleep with a temperature.

He stirred several times in the night and I gave him calpol to lower his temperature.

Sunday morning he was still 39.5 (103.1) so we gave him some more calpol, he was also extremely sleepy and we couldn't even get him to stir for a drink, he'd just go straight back to sleep and by 1pm there was no change and he'd only had one wee in 18 hours so I called NHS direct on 111

The thing that really bugged me was that Blake has never had a temperature before without some other symptom or obvious cause such as a cold, cough, tummy bug or following vaccinations etc. Naturally my thoughts turned to some sort of heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

The nurse on the NHS direct line decided to send a paramedic crew to check Blake wasn't becoming dehydrated.

While I was still on the phone to her, my cheeky little monkey sat up in bed and asked me for smarties!!!! Yes! smarties! 

The nurse still wanted to send someone to check so we got to hang out with a lovely ambulance team who checked Blake over and gave some advice to help lower his temperature - because calpol alone wasn't working we were advised to alternate ibuprofen with paracetamol based medicine.

They also recommended stripping him down to pants (he had short pj's on) and one of the team asked if I had any ice lollies - now, being a very hot day, Blake clearly out of the danger zone and my silly sense of humour I replied "yeah, I've got some Mini Magnums if you fancy one!" This joke did not seem to go down well or even recognised in its light hearted meaning - I was promptly told (in a stern head master voice) that fruit ice lollies are for Blake and a great way to control temperature and hydration! 

The Paramedic crew (there were 3 of them) were brilliant and monitored Blake for about 45mins, they did a few observations that I wasn't even aware off such as noting his pupil size and used apps to time his heart rate with an iPhone! - aren't we all so gadget savvy these days!

Not long after they left, Maegan (aged 2) also started with a temperature so it soon became apparent that this was some sort of bug. (Although neither me or hubby caught it) 

In both of them it lasted 2-3 days, didn't seem to have any other symptom beside the hard to control fever, except both complained of a sore mouth - I couldn't see anything, no red throat or husky voices or sores or anything!

Emma in Bromley x
Controlling fever in kids since 2009
(@beachpebble)

4 comments:

  1. Glad they're ok now. If you notice a load of pink spots suddenly appearing out of nowhere, don't panic, it's probably roseola (http://www.medicinenet.com/roseola/article.htm). The main symptoms are really high fever that won't come down then a sudden outbreak of spots when it's on the way out. The only worrying part is the fever, the kids had it when they were little and I remember the spots freaked me out because I wasn't expecting them !

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  2. Hang on in there! Just remember- children have never read, and do not follow, the rule book!!!! X

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  3. Glad both your children are better now :)

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Thank you for your comments

Emma x