Category: Eve

Well, it’s one way to experience all the different hospital options, but I’d like to think I’ve done enough research for one year. I promise I was going to blog about something more uplifting and stop moaning…maybe even take some photographs! Eve had other plans though.

We had the pleasure of the hospitality (sorry) of yet another children’s hospital yesterday. Eve woke us at 4am because she’d been sick and by 8am she wasn’t showing any sign of getting better. I’m trying to write this without inflicting too many descriptive words on you, because I know there are those among you who probably don’t like to read blow-by-blow accounts of other children’s illnesses. Anyway, she wasn’t keeping anything down, even liquid. I tried feeding her small teaspoons of water and she couldn’t even manage to hold onto that. I’d read somewhere in one of those children’s instruction manuals you get when you have a baby that you have to be extremely careful of dehydration, as it can quickly become very serious. So, as soon as I could see that she was only getting worse we got her to our local doctor.

He took one look at her grey face and her sunken eyes and told us to get her to the hospital straight away. She was a listless little shadow of her former self and it was quite scary to see just how fast she’d gone downhill. We got on the motorway (no public transport for us this time) and drove as fast as our little Saxo could take us to Tallaght Children’s Hospital. I must apologise to you if you were bullied out of the fast lane or undertaken by a green hatchback yesterday morning, Matt was taking no chances. I was hiding in the backseat praying we weren’t all about to admitted.

Eve has never been so sick as she was yesterday and I’ve never felt so helpless as I did when we stood around the bed and watched the doctor hook her little arm up to the IV. She was so listless and ill she barely had the energy to cry when she felt the needle going in and all I could do was try and get her to look at me while I smiled as if everything was perfectly fine.

We sat with her for about 3 hours and waited for the fluids to do their work. The doctor told us to expect that she would have to be admitted and it did seem that nothing was happening. Eve slept for most of the time, and when she was awake she would just ask for a drink please. We didn’t want her to be sick anymore so we had to keep saying no. Big mean parents!

At last the doctor came in to decide if he needed to keep her in and told us to give her a little drink of 7Up. She was so delighted we were finally letting her have a drink her whole body was shaking as she was sucking it up the straw. As soon as she’d finished the cup she perked up and started chattering away to us just as she normally does. What a relief! Once the doctor saw she was doing a lot better he said we could take her home.

As soon as we got home she and I collapsed on the couch and fell asleep. They really do put you through the whole spectrum of emotions these children. I can tell you though that just like in Vincent’s and Temple Street, we were seen straight away. The staff were all lovely and explained everything they were doing. I did witness the trolleys along the corridors in the adult section though and I hope I never have to experience that for myself.