The Spidey Sense Twang!

I have to say, one thing that has come out of having a child with medically complex special needs is that it well and truly shattered my over re-activeness in parenting!

I don't think I've ever been really bad, I'm definitely not as bad as some... but now I think, at least when it comes to my 'normal' children, I tend to be pretty laid back.

"Really? My kid has a 40 degree fever? Are her toes still twitching? Then she's all good!"

I don't tend to over react a whole lot.

Yet, Nicola almost always sets my spidey sense twanging. I can't even say twinging because it is so much more than a little twinge, it is a great big resonating twang!

Take her most recent little game. She woke last weekend with a bit of a temperature. Nothing too frightening, gave her a bit of panadol and set her down to go about our day... and then it started.

Oh My God! She's vomitting!!

She probably has gastro.

She is really irritable, I wonder if that's something.

She's not sleeping properly. Maybe that's something?

Hang on! Why is she even vomiting? She can't vomit! She's had a fundo!

She's vomiting!

Maybe it's neurological?

She has a shunt, could it be blocked?

Does the shunt look squidgy? (yeah, real medical terms here!)

No, there's no squidginess.

She's vomiting and she has a fever.

She's undone the fundo.

But it presents as possibly neurological...

Hang on! She's undone the fundo!

That fundo was holding down a hernia!

If she's undone the fundo, where is her gut sitting? Does she need surgery for that?

Crap, she's vomitting again and she's screaming and hitting her head...

So surgery for the fundo and if she keeps going this way likely a hernia repair.

She probably needs surgery for the neuro stuff.

I can't see any obvious signs of damage to the shunt or blockage. Maybe it's completely malfunctioning!

Oh God! Should I phone the neuro surgeons and get them to start organizing tests?

I don't know...

Maybe I should phone the paeds?

No, it's a weekend, we have to deal with Emergency and they're useless.

Tomorrow is Monday, I'll hold off and see if we can wait til tomorrow and talk to her paeds.

Oh, never mind, there's the poosplosion! It's just gastro after all!

Mind you, this mental conversation takes place over many hours, but still, it kind of gives you a bit of an idea.

A week later, my spidey sense is still twanging, but for a whole range of different reasons... I've spent ages trying to figure out why I seem to have a permanent headache, I have blamed my children, my husband, too much chocolate, not enough chocolate, too much caffeine, not enough caffeine, heat, sunlight, and a million other things, but it seems that all along, it's just my own spidey sense twanging away in the recesses of my mind, making it's presence always known.

Now if I could just find a way to silence it!!!