Our Christmas 2008 Drama

We had a really bazaar Christmas, Drew had headaches and chills even though his body temp was ok. I phoned the 13health number at about 4.30am and they said to take him to GP when they opened in the morning, which we did, I mentioned also that there was a line across him eye lash, and they just said he probably has a sinus problem and to just keep giving him panadol and nurofen, which again I did. Then when he woke on Tuesday his eye was a bit more swollen and he was now running temps, so I took him to the GP again and she said than he needed to stop rubbing it, I kept saying he hasn't been rubbing it, and they said his temp wasn't too bad (38.1) not happy, so Justin kept a watch of him and I went to Fire training, assured, the doctors were almost saying I was over reacting. When I got home at 10.30pm his eye was up like a balloon and his face was looking deformed. I took him straight to Mossman hospital and the doctor there was concerned and asked me to drive him to Cairns Base Hospital (one and a half hours away,I was still in my fire uniform) I phoned Justin and told him, he stayed with Brayden and then came in as soon as he could. It was now early hours Christmas eve, they did a CT Scan and showed it to me, his eye was being pushed diagonally down by two abscesses, one in the optical socket and one in the sinus passage. They operated immediately, worried about the pressure on his brain and eye. It was a very long 5hr wait, where they had to use cocaine as the infection was the nastiest they had come across and they needed to hit it hard,and when he came out we were so relieved. This didn't last long, as he started to go down hill really fast, Christmas day was we waited to see if they were going to go in and operate again, but they decided to change anti-biotics and see how he went over night. Really bad night, and they came in and prepared him again. It was so surreal, because at that stage he was septic, I did all I could do give his conscious a will to live and pull through. This operation was better, he came out and we could see changes very quickly. He was just so sick, and it all happened so fast, it scared me so much but I just had to keep going and pull Justin together. The hospital staff were awesome and made Christmas as good as it could have been in this situation. We came home a week later, Drew had the drain tubes still in and we had to keep changing dressing, New Years day I got really paranoid and took him in, they assured me he was ok, but because it happened so fast I didn't want to miss the signs. His tubes some how came out, I told him to loosen the tape on his face ( it was hurting him every time I had to change it), and Brayden came in whit as a ghost, Drew's tubes came out with the dressing. We again went back to the hospital and again came home. On Monday we had the appointment with the ENT specialist and he was happy and wants to see him in 4weeks. As for Brayden, he stayed with Mum and Dad, he had Christmas with Mum and dad and waited until Drew came home to open the pressies from us. This is where Brayden started to not cope. Everyone was giving Drew attention and pressies and he hated it. We did explain, but just didn't sink in. It is his birthday tomorrow, so I hope this helps make him feel a bit better.

Gosh, listen to me. Hope your Christmas's all went well, I look forward to anyone who wants to tell their story.

Stay Safe,
Till next time

Michelle