Nobody likes being sick. What’s worse is when your kids are sick. The Jones’ household has been full of sickness lately. It feels like we have just not been able to catch a break. Each of the kids have had a bout of gastro and just as we thought we were getting over that period, the cold & flu symptoms starting making an appearance. It started with our eldest, Lincoln, the moved to Alexander, then finally Hope.

Due to having Down syndrome, Hope is more susceptible to getting chest infections so whenever we start to hear that little sniffle or the cough, we go on high alert. After a few hospital visits previously we know waiting just a little too long can turn a quick visit into a week long stay. At the same time, you don’t want to go too early, and have them turn you around and tell you to just keep monitoring.

This time round it started with a cough. A few days later, Hope’s cough became a bark, her nose was running, her temperature was rising and she was becoming quite lethargic. On Sunday night, we charged up the Owlet sock and put it on for a few hours to make sure her oxygen levels were ok. 18 months ago, we waited too long, and when we took her to the hospital her oxygen levels were very low and she had developed pneumonia. I didn’t want this to happen again. When we were happy with the level of oxygen, we left her to sleep. The following night, she went to sleep again but woke at 3:30am Tuesday morning. Her temperature had spiked to 39.5 and her oxygen levels were low barely reaching an oxygen saturation of 90%. I looked at Ben, knowing we had a doctors appointment already booked in for midday and said “Do we skip the doctor and go straight to the hospital?” We watched her for a few mins as she went in and out of sleep and we knew it was time. Knowing that we had a week long stay previously, I packed a bag with at least a few days worth of clothes, gathered my things and off we went.

Being so early in the morning we were taken straight through from the triage nurse into a bed, and there we waited for the doctor. The first few hours in the emergency department, Hope was miserable. I’ve never seen her like that. She would cry even while she was cuddled. She was uncomfortable. She was sick and I felt terrible that I couldn’t do anything to help her. Hope was checked over by a doctor and went for a chest x-ray which confirmed she was in the early stages of developing pneumonia in one lung. My immediate thought was ‘Did I wait too long again?’. The doctor answered that for me before I even asked. She said, we had come in at the right time, not too early that we would have been sent home because there was nothing they could have done that we couldn’t do at home, but not too late that she had developed “full blown” pneumonia.

I could focus on the negatives that come with Hope being sick and having to go to hospital, but I want to look at the positives, and yes, there are positives.

The doctors know that there is a higher chance of chest infections with Down syndrome which meant they knew exactly how to look after Hope. Even though Hope wasn’t showing a great amount of difficulty breathing, they knew there was still the possibility that it was more than it initially seemed. This meant they did the chest x-ray so they would know for certain whether she had pneumonia developing. They also asked me how far from ‘civilisation’ was. At the time, they were still deciding whether they needed to keep us overnight. Too far away and they would not have felt comfortable sending us home. It might not seem like much, but simply having doctors who are familiar with Down syndrome and know what to expect and what to look for is definitely a positive.

Also, from the moment we walked into the emergency room until we left more than 24 hours later, everyone we came across had the same attitude towards Hope as they would any other child. They didn’t act differently around her because of her Down syndrome. Even when Hope was crying, they didn’t judge. They knew she was sick and sick kids cry, no matter who they are. When she wasn’t upset, she was winning hearts. The doctors and nurses loved her. They loved watching her doing actions to songs, dancing to the Wiggles, and waving at everyone as they went by. It wasn’t just the doctors and nurses either. There was another young girl, about 2 1/2, with her mother opposite us in the emergency department. She asked lots of questions and absolutely adored Hope. It gave me an opportunity to share about how much joy she brought to our lives and how raising her was just like raising any of our other kids. I don’t know what her thoughts were about Down syndrome before that hospital visit, but I’d like to hope that we made her feel more acceptance and more love towards those with Down syndrome.

Thankfully, our visit to the hospital this time was only a short one and after an over night stay and a few hours of monitoring, we were able to come home and finish recovering in our own beds with the family. Visiting the hospital is never something we look forward to regardless of who we are taking. The good thing is, no matter who they are, they are always looked after.