Exactly 12 months ago my health visitor told me he thought that LA had Pertusis or as most of you will know it Whooping Cough. So I phoned my doctors who incidentally are rubbish if you need an appointment, and they said I’d either have to wait for a week or go to the local walk in centre. I decided not to wait and to take her to the walk in centre, after a very long wait we saw the doctor who basically told me that it was just a normal winter cough and cold and to carry on as normal, so as it was Halloween I decided that she was fine to go to the church for the Sunday school Halloween party.

Over the next few days LA’s cough got progressively worse, however I was reluctant to go back to the walk in centre as I’d been made to feel like I was just being a neurotic mother who was wasting there time with a normal winter cough and cold.
4 days later I decided enough was enough and LA really needed medical attention as with every cough she seemed to by gasping for breath, as whooping cough had been ruled out I thought that she’d maybe need a inhaler to help cope with the cough and nothing more. So instead of heading straight to A&E we went back to the walk in centre.
In fact I couldn’t have been more wrong, at the walk in centre they lovely triage nurse took some blood oxygen readings and kept us in her room talking until the doctor was free and rushed us straight through to him. He again took more blood oxygen readings and listened to her cough. And sent us straight to the Children’s ward of the local hospital.
Once there she had more blood oxygen tests was weighted, and they decided they needed to take some bloods. When the consultant came in to take her bloods she took one look at LA and said

we have a very very sick baby here why is she not on oxygen?

The next few days were and are still to much of a blur of tests, drips, oxygen, antibiotics and monitoring for me to accurately recall, however these next few pictures tell the story

Incase you are wondering why she wasn’t vaccinated she wasn’t old enough to be vaccinated in fact she was just 2 weeks away from being vaccinated, and as the outbreak hadn’t happened whilst I was carrying her I wasn’t offered the vaccine either.
12 months later she is perfectly fine but tiny for her age due to a milk protein allergy, so the whooping cough fortunately has left no lasting damage.