Friday 13th May
We have been treating Alice for a stubborn UTI for a couple of months now. This week we have started another course of antibiotics. We can’t call them “antibiotics” though because then Alice won’t swallow it, so instead we opt for “special bladder medicine”. This seems to have done the trick and so far she is taking it without complaint. I won’t hold my breath though as she is quite changeable.
Today we went to visit the Urodynamic team at the Children’s Hospital. This is the department that looks after the bladder and bowels. Today I have to learn how to give Alice a bladder wash – this sounds far more scary than it turns out to be! They say this should finally get on top of the infection, and it seems to be a pretty straightforward procedure. I have to draw the medicine into a syringe and then mix with saline and put into her empty bladder. Then empty the bladder with a catheter after 30 minutes. The complicated bit is that I have to remember to do the procedure once a day for 10 days and then three times a week for a month!
I left the hospital with two huge bags with all the medicine, syringes, catheters and sharps bin – it looks like I’ve been shopping! Learning new skills that will help improve our care of Alice is always a very satisfying experience – sometimes I cannot believe what I have learned and put into practice through fostering.
You can imagine then that after my morning at the hospital how unimpressed I was when I collected Alice from school to find that the the teaching assistant had failed to give her the antibiotics! You cannot make this stuff up. When asked why she had not given it she said ‘Oh I thought when Charlie gave me the new medicine it was a new bottle of her old medicine”. She had not even looked at the bottle or the paperwork with it to give permission to give the medicine at school. Sadly this is not the first time this has happened with this member of staff. The critical issue is that Alice has to keep up with her course of antibiotics, and missing a dose can make all the difference!
I take a deep breath, I cannot believe I am going to have to make a complaint again about this only a week before Alice leaves the school. I would leave it but I have to think of the next child in her care!
A Less Ordinary Family BLOG
