Thomas has a chest infection...

Poor old Thomas - for (I suppose) the last week, as I've been going in to collect him from his bedroom early in the morning, instead of leaping up out of bed yelling "Oh it's YOU Daddy! Let's go DOWNSTAIRS!!!" he's been all curled up in his blankets and has lifted his head up just a little bit and (in his best quiet moany voice) muttered "I'm not wewwy well daaddy, I need one-nice-green-leaf" *massive pout*... :( So we've come downstairs, I've taken his temperature (which was typically a little up, but not terrible) humored him by plucking him a nice fresh basil leaf from the plant in the kitchen (it's a very hungry caterpillar thing)...

...perhaps given him a little dose of paracetamol suspension or nurofen, watched his temperature trickle back to normal(ish) and just got on with things. This was until 2 days ago when he started to go off his food and drink, developed a nasty cough and (most worryingly) started complaining that it felt "Spicy" when he needed to use the potty for a number one...when we checked his temperature after this it was shockingly just below 40 degrees! So (because of the hour) we had to go back to our favorite place! Yay! :(

Thomas, after spending an hour an a half laying on our coats on the floor in the *boiling* temperatures (just in his nappy) of the Children's emergency unit - in all that time provided with just two small glasses of warm water between the four of us - we were finally allocated a bed, at which point all the nurses suddenly panicked that Thomas should be drinking 5 mil of water every five minutes(!) and was far too hot...so we just carried on what we had been doing all along - offering him drinks which he refused, wetting his skin and using books to waft cool air over him and after around 40 minutes we were transferred to the (much cooler) Outwood ward where we were showered with drinks (including tea and coffee for Flyingpops and I) and Thomas even got given jam on toast!

We saw a doctor fairly quickly, but not before Thomas had discovered (and had to be yanked away from) a blu-ray player, a Nintendo Wii, a PS2 (with all their interesting disks inside various cupboards), a sea-plane, the doctors sink and taps, some Duplo that stuck to the wall, some fold out screens and a box of (lolly stick) medical tongue depressors (that Daddy had to tidy back up again)...and after nearly 3 hours were told he *probably* had an infection (swollen tonsils and "up" glands) and were sent home to keep an eye on him and monitor his temperature (which we had been doing all along anyway)...it was just past midnight when we all crawled into bed (more dehydrated and stressed than we had been to start with, and equally worried)...

The next day (thankfully) his temperature was completely normal in the morning, but he was still very chesty and obviously off his food and drink, he barely ate any breakfast or lunch (apart from ice cream that he was allowed due to his swollen tonsils)-

-but after missing his lunchtime nap his temperature was back at 39 degrees! Rather than go back to the hospital Flyingpops thought she would (on the off-chance) try out our new doctors, called them up, was answered right away and was offered an appointment in 15 minutes time, meaning we all had to rush back out to the car and up to the surgery!

Anyway, suffice it to say it took the new doctor all of 2 minutes to diagnose a chest infection and prescribe some Amoxicillin suspension (after two doses of which Thomas has been back to his usual self - apart from the ice cream dinners)...if only we could have gone there in the first place!