Friday 29 June 2012

Poorly child at home, not much else to do except cuddle.. and tidy!

Stephs Two Girls June 29, 2012 antibiotics, autism, medicine, Pathological Demand Avoidance, PDA, PDA Life, won't take medicine

I was really quite worried about Sasha last night, as she had a temperature of around 39 at bedtime, and rather than falling asleep she was drowsy for around 3 hours. As she was only semi-conscious, I did actually manage to drop some calpol into her mouth with a syringe, and I think most of it stayed in. It shows how ill she was that I was actually able to get that syringe anywhere near her mouth. With the last squirt she realised what I was doing and cried loudly, almost choking it back up, and then started to refuse her water in case it was more medicine. She did get a little bit delirious, and I have to admit I got some clothes ready in case I had to dash off to hospital with her.

Despite the fact I can't remember the last time she took some liquid medicine (all she's had in the past 2/3 years or even longer is 2 suppositories), it seemed to have no effect. Is her body just strong enough to fight all these infections off by itself?

Last time I took her to the doctors to get her chest examined (she is prone to coughs), the young doctor started to explain that he could prescribe anti-biotics but they don't really like to - then came a long spiel explaining why not, that I've heard before. I just replied that I didn't want the antibiotics, as I had no chance of getting them in her anyhow. 'Medicine is disgusting' - that's her line, and she's sticking to it. Even when she's really poorly, it upsets and stresses her even more if we offer medicine - it's like we're trying to poison her or something!

Anyhow the doctor stopped, looked at me, and asked what I thought I would do if she did ever really need medicine. I could honestly say that I had no idea. Really I hoped that he, or someone else in the medical profession, would be able to provide that answer!

It made me stop and think a bit more about it - and the next step was to google. I found this amazing post on the subject over at Moody mommy's blog and would urge anybody who thinks they could make my child take medicine to go and read it. It would appear it's not just limited to children with autism, not that that makes it any easier to handle.

Sasha only ever drinks water (usually lots of it), and has a limited diet otherwise of things like mini Pepperami sausages, bananas, weetabix, sandwiches, crisps, chocolate and chips. Oh and occasionally pizza and a bit of ham. No yoghurt, no juice, no ice cream, no sweets, nothing in fact, that you could hide a bit of medicine in. It's a real worry. However seeing as it seemed to make no difference this time, maybe we should just quit trying and worrying about it?

Her temperature didn't drop until about 2 in the morning, and then only a little bit. Enough to come downstairs and watch recorded TV shows for the next two hours though, ho hum. When asked if she was well enough for school in the morning, she replied 'I'm too poorly. But I want to go to school for pizza and chips'! Her Friday school dinner - at least now I know I'll never have trouble getting her in on a Friday. She didn't go in though; she has needed to rest all day.

All of yesterday evening and night, as I sat and slept by Sasha's side, I felt terribly guilty about getting so worried about 'just' a high temperature. I know there are so many more parents out there who have worse things to worry about, and who wished it was only a temperature for their child. To them I send virtual hugs; I only wish I could help more.

There were so many images of today I could have posted, such as our lounge taken up by makeshift beds again, or Tamsin's playdate which was lovely, or the mad changes in weather - but I picked this one:

May not look much to you... but it's a carpet! Yes, a carpet! In our eldest's room! Due to a million soft toys plus other small debris I had almost forgotten there was even a carpet there..... it's not perfect now, but boy does it look a lot better after my one hour 'spring' clean than it did before.

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