Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Poorly Charlie

Or perhaps 'Pukey Charlie' would be a more accurate description. :-(
Chas woke up this morning with a tummy ache - he said he didn't feel sick, more that he had a 'headache' in his tummy.
I dithered about whether to send him to school (Does anyone else agonise about when to keep their kids home or not? It really stresses me out trying to make the decision!) but he was looking a bit pale - albeit still nice and pink - so I told him he could take the morning off and maybe go in at lunchtime if he felt better...
Well, three cheers for mother's intuition, because an hour later he started vomiting. :-(
He's going through the usual feel rotten/be sick/feel better cycle with the puking coming in waves. Poor little soul. I hate it when he's ill.
Even more so now he's on warfarin.
When a child on warfarin is ill - even fairly minor things like a tummy bug or temperature spike - their INR (blood thinness measurement) can shoot up suddenly, leaving them susceptible to excessive bleeding. This means that whenever Charlie is poorly, I need to test his blood.
Now, I'm not that keen on sticking him at the best of times, but we have settled into a routine and he's pretty used to it now.
Charlie likes to know what's what, and keeps track of when his next blood test will be - and is pretty unsettled if anything unexpected is thrown at him with regard to his INR tests.
So needless to say, he was not a happy boy this morning when he realised he'd need a blood test because he'd thrown up.
Poor Chas. It all seems so wrong somehow - my little boy is huddled in my lap on the bathroom floor having been really sick and what do I do?
Hug him?
Mop his brow?
Tuck him in bed?
Nope - I have to stick him with a pin.
Bleagh. I hate this - maybe even more than he does.
His warfarin is so important to ensure his Fontan keeps working as well as it possibly can, but I am REALLY hoping it won't be long before somebody comes up with an equally efficient anti-coagulant which doesn't need monitoring so carefully.
Anyway, his INR was high this morning - up to 2.9 - which is still within his prescribed range, but only just. His INR could keep climbing as the bug progresses through his system, so he'll need his blood testing again tomorrow morning.
Sigh.
My poor little man. Fingers crossed this is only a 24-hour thing.

Sent from my iPhone

2 comments:

Jenny said...

Awww poor buddy! And poor mommy :( Keeping Charlie in our thoughts and prayers for this to be a quick run with the flu and it all be over soon.

Wodzisz Family said...

This stomach bug sucks. It went through our house and we unintentionally gave it to another heart family. I have read a few other posts this week with little ones having the same bug. I cannot believe how fast and far it has spread.

I hope Charlie is doing better really soon. Hope got it worse than the boys and it lasted 3 days...YUCK. I am keeping Charlie in my thoughts and prayers that it is only 24 hours for him.