December 15, 2008

***Updated - see at bottom of post!!***

Hi everyone - sorry not to have posted sooner, but Charlie's been pretty poorly the last few days with a horrible cough/cold and a sickness bug too.
He's been off school since last Thursday, although I'm hoping he'll be well enough to go back tomorrow.
He's cheerful enough in himself, and is still nice and pink, so this bug doesn't seem to be affecting him heart-wise - he's just full of cold like any other kid!
I took him to the doctor last week just to have him listen to Charlie's chest - we're usually pretty relaxed when Charlie's ill, but whenever he gets a cough we like to make sure his chest is clear and he's not developing a chest infection. We were pretty sure it was just an upper respiratory tract thing - a snotty head cold, basically - but it's always better to be on the safe side, as chest infections and HLHS do NOT go well together.
Unfortunately, Charlie was too poorly to go to the SnowDome in Tamworth, so we missed out on that on Saturday. (Fortunately we hadn't told him where we were going - just that he would be having a treat, so he wasn't too disappointed. We, however, were pretty fed up because the tickets were almost £50 and of course, were non-transferable and non-refundable. Grrrrr.)
He's missing his school disco today, which is probably not a bad thing - he's not particularly keen on the disco music anyway, and running around getting puffed out and coughing is probably not a good idea at the moment.
There's not a lot planned at school this week - just a Christmas Craft Fayre on Thursday afternoon, and then the carol service and Christmas lunch on Friday, so hopefully he should be able to take things fairly easy this week - although the level of excitement among the kids is really ramping up now!
Anyway - back soon, hopefully with some photos and the news that Charlie's back on form again!

UPDATED: Cancel what I said about Charlie going back to school tomorrow! On top of everything else, Charlie has now burst the blood vessels in his right nostril, so his nose has been bleeding non-stop since 9 o'clock this morning. We tried everything, from pinching his nose for what seemed like hours, cold compresses and eating ice lollies to rubbing vaseline inside his nose, but to no avail. We're not talking worrying blood loss here, more an oozy annoyance.
Having spoken to the doctor at lunchtime, she asked us to take Chas to the surgery if the bleeding hadn't stopped by 3pm, so we did. It's nothing serious, but the entire inside of his nostril is raw and bleeding, and every time he coughs/blows his nose/sneezes it all starts again. Oh dear.
He's been given antibiotic ointment to stop it turning nasty, but the doctor said he wasn't to go to school tomorrow in case he bumps his nose. Let's wait and see if he makes it back to school on Wednesday!