What I learned this week

I’m thinking that, if it wasn’t already so, this weeks ‘What I learned this week’ will not paint me in the best light…..

• When Hubby tells me that Beautiful B’s cough that sounds like whooping cough but is never whopping cough does not sound right, I should listen to him because you if not I will feel guilty when she is diagnosed with a chest infection 3 days later 
•  If Beautiful B starts with the whoopy cough without having a cold or just having had a cold then its likely to be a sign of a chest infection 
• When Beautiful B is taking adult cough medicine for the first time since the doctors stopped prescribing banana and strawberry tasting penicillin when she was 10 years old I should know she is really poorly – after all, prior to that point she refused to take it ‘because it made her sick’
• I obviously do not take as much notice of things as I would like to think I do

 However, I did manage to redeem myself (if only slightly)

•  I was correct for not taking as gospel that ‘antibiotics will take 2-3 days to start taking effect’ and ‘she will get worse before she gets better’
•  I was not wrong for worrying that the chest infection may have progressed to pneumonia and defied all antibiotic prowess (I hasten to add it wasn’t pneumonia but the doctors did agree I was right to take her back urgently when she deteriorated so badly)
•  The feeling of relief when a doctor tells me that her lungs sound clear is amazing as I realised it cannot pneumonia - even though they were referring her to hospital as they are concerned that she was breathless at rest.  Cue x-rays, blood tests and an ECG to check that she doesn’t have scary things such as a blood clot on the lung

And I also learned:

• Beautiful B is just like her mum and will ignore all doctors advice and say she will be fine on Monday when she has to return to work because ‘she is letting everybody down’
• The doctor and staff nurse will still insist she will not be well enough to return to work and considering she lifts hospital patients on and off beds, chairs and all manner of other things for a living I'd been telling her that all week (she knew that, just not willing to admit it)
• She will not allow me to ring the GP for a sick note until the day it is actually required just in case she makes a miraculous recovery
• I seriously will begin to wonder if she is going to burst blood vessels or cough up a lung during coughing bouts
• My ears can actually ring during said coughing bouts
• As a mother I really should have had a thermometer in the house before a hospital doctor instructs me to monitor her temperature rarely and watch for her coughing up blood.

So what did you learn this week……