It's been a while since I typed and since then I suppose it's mostly been regular day-to-day stuff, until today.
It all started on Thursday afternoon/evening when Gabi complained that she thought she could feel a sty developing in her right eye. We started treating it with warm salty water. As we left early Friday morning to travel to Sydney, we didn't think about it first thing in the morning. By the end of Friday, Gabi was still complaining of pain in her eye. There was nothing that could be seen.
Come Saturday morning I had just taken this photo of Gabi and Ingrid (focusing on Ingrid to get an expression) and didn't notice that her eye was closing.
About half-an-hour later I was chatting with Gabi and noticed he eye had closed a fraction more than in the photo. As we were heading home, we treated it with a cold press before leaving. Upon returning home late in the afternoon we headed straight to the pharmacy and were given some eye drops to try.
We woke this morning for church and Gabi's eye again had swollen. After chatting to a dear friend (former paediatric nurse) I called "Health First" who (also) suggested I take Gabi to hospital to have it more closely examined.
Upon arrival it didn't actually take too long to have Gabi taken around to a Paeds bed in the Emergency Department where she and Ben were able to watch a DVD while they observed her. The nurse looking after us said it was the quietest shift she could remember for a long time. All the nurses were great and had an awareness of our family situation, which probably added to their gentleness. They appreciated that as I was happy to avoid the hospital as much as possible, there was some concern that led to bringing her in.
Our dear friend Cath came with her kids (with lunch and bearing gifts) and took Ben home for a play, which allowed Gabi and I to hang around to have this resolved.
The initial view from nurses was the possibility of
orbital cellulitis, which would lead to the administration of IV antibiotics. The doctor checked her closely and felt that it was an infection of a gland in the eye. Her eye was responsive and there was an absence of a few other symptoms that swayed him away from the former view. He also had the registrar double-check and she agreed with his diagnosis.
Gabi was sent home with a combination of oral antibiotics, eye drops and an eye ointment (the latter for bed time). We've been told there should be an improvement, and if so, she can go to school in the morning. If things haven't settled in 24-48 hours, then it will be a return trip to the hospital for a drip. Without the swelling and the tenderness on the swollen part of the eye, you wouldn't even know there was anything wrong with Gabi.
As an aside, the doctor that treated Gabi was originally from Kenya. After a brief discussion we both worked we were "brothers in Christ". It was a real blessing to talk at that level and have someone who genuinely cared about how we were travelling as a family but able to rejoice in our salvation and knowing where Maria TRULY has gone!
After a weekend of driving and hanging around the hospital (sometimes reflecting on times I'd spent next to Maria, especially as Gabi's bed was around the corner from where Maria had stayed on two occasions prior to her admission) I've hit a wall. I am acting at a higher level at work for the week ahead with my boss overseas on work, so I'd better try and grab some sleep soon.
