Ain't that the truth.
3 year old princess came into our bed for a cuddle on the morning of our departure. After a few minutes she started to complain of stomach ache and quickly became unable to speak due to the pain.
I knew pretty immediately it was serious, thinking appendicitis.
I pulled on my cleaning clothes from the previous day and skanky pair of shorts and a dirty t-shirt and carried her to the car.
In the ER they suspected a gastric bug...but I was dubious.
They asked me about trauma and what she'd eaten the previous day....but of course for the last few days we had farmed the kids out to various friends while we got locked and loaded. I rang the friends asking them about the health of their kids and what princess had eaten. Almost by the way, I mentioned trauma and T said she did have an incident on the trampoline and had been crying but settled and was fine afterwards.
I told this to the doctor and he looked grave.
By this point Princess had been vomiting for 4 hours...was grunting and couldn't speak with pain and was curled up on her side on a trolley in the ER.
She had an abdominal x-ray and blood tests, he came in and said the tests results were not normal and he would be back to explain. Immediately I began catatrophising...Leukaemia. E v e n t u a l l y, he returned to say it was pancreatitis. I almost kissed him, he said it was very serious and very rare in children.
He would transfer her by ambulance to the nearest pediatric centre, 50km away.
The SAMU or proper nee-naw ambulance was not available so we got a private ambulance.
Princess was very sick and loosing conciousness getting less responsive.
It was the white knuckle ride of my life. The road are narrow two way mountain roads...the driver over-took with on-coming traffic, with cliffs down the left side of the road. I was obviously scared and he kept reassuring me. The paramedic in the back with Princess was telling him to hurry up, while trying to hide that from me.
On arrival in Albertville, Princess had an ultrasound of abdomen and a CT Scan immediately. The said she needed to be sent onwards to the major teaching hospital (another 120km) and the results of the scan would indicate whether it was by helicopter or ambulance. The scans indicated no internal bleeding so she was transfered by ambulance again. Doing a little better now and more comfortable.
We arrived in the CHU Grenoble (Centre Hopitalier Universitaire) the french code for very important hospital and stayed for 4 days. The treatment was fasting and fluid replacement with IVs. They taked about feeding through a drip, but Princess blood tests improved rapidly and she was allowed to start eating a low fat diet.
That child LOVES her grub and fasting for her was torture. For the next 2 weeks her question for any doctor was when she could eat pizza. I'm delighted to report she had 2 slices last night....with chips....HURRAY.
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