Click. Whiiiiiirrrrrrr. The bright light of the bathroom beamed across the hallway and into our bedroom, accompanied by the sound of the fan that automatically turns on with the light, waking both Aaron and me up simultaneously.
“What time is it?” Aaron asked me as he poked his head up off the pillow, still half asleep.
“4:30.”
Hannah was in the bathroom, fiddling with something.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?”
“I ran out of water, I’m just filling up my cup.”
Um, ok. As you do at 4:30 in the morning. But that’s the way things have been going around here the last couple of days. Hannah is sick.
It started out as one little eye goober (or sleep as the Aussies call it, and then look at me like I’m from Mars when I say goober) on Saturday morning. Sometimes people just get goobers. Maybe an eyelash was in her eye and then a protective goober formed around it until the eyelash was removed. These things happen. We didn’t think anything of it.
Except by 3:30, both of Hannah’s eyes looked like someone with a particularly nasty sinus infection had blown their nose straight into Hannah’s eyes. I was wiping them with a warm damp cloth every few minutes.
She started getting testier and testier. If she asked for something and I gave it to her, she’d scream cry saying she wanted something else, which is totally unlike her.
My googling skills told me that Hannah most likely had bacterial conjuntivitis.
Photo courtesy of WebMD. Hannah’s was a lot worse than this though, and more greenish than yellowish, but you get the idea
No doctors offices were open by that time on a Saturday afternoon, so I called the after hours GP service. Just quietly, it is much easier using them than going to the doctor anyway.
Every time I take the kids to the doctor, Daniel runs around and around the little Hallway that connects at both ends to the main room and makes the most perfect running around like a crazy person circle. Running around in circles would not be complete without deafeningly loud squeals of delight, drawing attention from all of the other annoyed sick people who are nicely sitting in their chairs staring at me and wondering why I can’t control my children. Yes, children. Because when Daniel is running around the hallway circle, Hannah doesn’t want to be left out, and she joins in too.
I could make them sit down and read, but if I take Daniel away from his delightful hallway circle, he arches his back, screams like I’m trying to murder him and then starts flailing to the point where I can’t hold on to him and just have to lay him on the floor to carry out his tantrum so I don’t end up accidentally dropping him on his head. I would prefer hallway running in delight than everyone staring at us for tantruming on the floor like a giant fish out of water any day, thank you very much.
The after hours doctors come to your house. And it doesn’t cost me any more than it does to visit the regular doctor (both of which are covered by medicare).
I was right, bacterial conjunctivitis. Also known in the U.S. as pinkeye, but apparently from the confused looks I got when I said it, not here.
She didn’t even cry when I put the horrible drops in her eyes. By morning, her goobers had subsided but she still wasn’t allowed to be around other people. She seemed pretty good on Sunday. A little tired, a tiny fever, but she was pretty happy and was playing.
Yesterday she looked ok in the morning and then a couple hours later, she had a fever of 40 degrees (104f) and was laying on the couch in misery. A dose of panadol only brought it down to 37.7, but a lukewarm bath brought it down to 37.1.
We stayed home all day so Hannah could rest. It was good for Hannah, but Daniel was going stir crazy and being particularly mischievous, drawing on the tv with crayon (FYI, it wipes right off, thank goodness), pulling Hannah’s hair and so forth.
After another dose of panadol before bedtime, Hannah went right to sleep. I set my alarm and checked on her in the night to make sure her fever didn’t get too high. Fevers too high in kids can cause convulsions.
I slowly opened the kids’ door, and nearly fall over when I tripped on a toy. She didn’t feel hot, so I didn’t take her temperature. Yesterday she felt like she was a furnace.
Hopefully she will be feeling better today. If her little water gathering episode in the bathroom is anything to go by, she will be fine. She wasn’t hot, and seemed very cheerful and pleased with herself, despite the fact that it was 4:30 in the morning. Did I mention I’ve been awake ever since?
Sigh.
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Mommy Adventures 
Hmm, just wondering, did her recent race involve getting splattered with cow-poop mud like yours did? Cuz didn’t I say in my comment on that one….next blog – random infections? (Or something along that line.) Yeah, nuf said.
Yes, it did. But she didn’t get her conjuntivitis until a week later. Depends on the incubation period I suppose. I’m not sure what it is for bacterial conjuntivitis. Could be cow poop mud. Except she didn’t get from her shoulder up dirty.
Oh no, that sucks! Hopefully she is better soon and you get some rest!
She’s still sick 😦 very high fevers and is now on antibiotics. I have to take her to the hospital if her fever doesn’t respond to panadol and nurofen. Poor baby.