Wednesday 2 April

Well, our 'normal' week began on Sunday with us feeling a bit tired, but able to make it in to church. That evening after dinner Hugo was playing on the floor in his bedroom and we heard him doing a horrible, weird cough. I grabbed him and he was choking and his lips were going blue. We weren't too sure what to do, he was still just able to breath but was really distressed, so I took him to the emergency department.

By the time I got there it seemed that whatever he had been choking on was going down and he kept having bursts of pain and crying. They did an x-ray on him which didn't show anything up, but I think he had choked on a little plastic rat (tasty) so it wouldn't show up easily anyway. One lady thought he had swallowed a real rat!

We were in there for a few hours and they were going to send us home because he seemed OK. They double checked with a doctor at the Royal Children's Hospital who said that we would need to come up for him to be observed. So I wasn't too excited about that, but was glad that they were being cautious. We rode up in an ambulance. I lay on the stretcher and cuddled Hugo trying (unsuccessfully) to get him to sleep and for a moment I thought this might even be a relaxing break, just lying around in hospital, no cooking, no cleaning and only one child.

We sat in a cubicle for a few hours with different people coming and giggling about the boy that swallowed a rat and I expect they were doing something medical as well!? By 2am I realised I was mistaken about the relaxing part of this. At around 3am we were in a bed and in for a sleepless night. I thought I was tired before today! Throughout the day Hugo had to fast a couple of times and have a few tests, then at about 5.30pm we were allowed to go home and arrived at 7pm (25 hours after leaving for hospital!). This was a long, long day though obviously I am very, very relieved and thankful that he is OK.

Now, as for Simon he is pretty tired and frustrated with not feeling good. He has had a headache for a few days and just feeling generally not great. He went to work Monday and yesterday but has had to stay home today. The doctor says he should be feeling better by tomorrow. It's amazing how constant and exhausting this all seems. I don't think there is any 'normal' at the moment!