the twinkle in my eye

further status update: the sore boob was a red herring. all the fever and chills and other symptoms led to a hideous case of gastro, which culminated in a visit to emergency for rehydration. it was nightmarish and i won’t retell the whole story – you can get the low down from special k over here. (the blocked duct was relatively easily resolved with a bit of massage and regular feeding/expressing.) at the height of it all, i couldn’t even suck on a block of ice without being violently ill. i know gastro isn’t the end of the world, but it was scary to be so dehydrated and fearful of not being able to keep the baby well-fed. and it was so frustrating to have conflicting advice from doctors:

“take these antibiotics”

“stop taking those antibiotics at once”

“you can probably take those antibiotics if you want to”

“you’d better take different antibiotics”

i understand that they’re trying to put the symptoms together into a diagnosis like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but when you’re sick and tired and vulnerable it’s hard to know who to listen to.

it was also totally crap that the doctor in the emergency room told me to just keep up my fluids, without offering anti-nausea medication or rehydration, when i had been unable to even suck on ice, let alone keep up (or down!) my fluids.

anyway, enough boring ranting about this relatively minor illness which has had a major impact on our household this week. just know that special k has been my hero throughout it all – doing the babycare and the running around to chemists and doctors and hospitals and the telephone calls and the sticking up for me, all when she is working and studying and preparing for a job interview. crikey – how have we survived this week?