Crappy Birthday to You

Jay turned 2 last week, we had planned a fabulous day out and lots of fun. I had gone as far as to book 2 days off work, cash in my Tesco clubcard vouchers for a free ticket to LegoLand Windsor so that we could get in for half price (under 3's are free), and saved money for junk food and ice creams. The weather was set to be gorgeous and we were planning to leave early.

Except that in the early morning the day before, Jay woke up thoroughly miserable. The other half went and brought him into our bed and I noticed he felt rather warm. About half an hour later he woke himself up by wretching, as he tends to do when he has a fever (such as after his MMR). Nothing was brought up, but he was in a bad way. Having established that Daddy would be ok taking care of him I went to work as usual, hoping that as has happened before this would be a 24 hour thing.

Except I knew it wouldn't be really. My sister, freshly returned from University with a BA only days previously and having spend extended time with her nephew since then was now on day 4 of an illness suspiciously like the dreaded Swine Flu. When I got home from work I found a pale, lethargic little boy with a yo-yo-ing temperature, runny nose and cough dozing in a specially made sick-bed on the sofa. He had eaten barely 6 teaspoons of Ready Brek all day, preferring to drink water and lay on the sofa watching Top Gear on Dave between sleeps.

As his temperature stayed stable for quite a few hours we decided just to keep him downstairs with us, but as we prepared to go to bed his temperature soared again to a massive 39.2°. I decided to call NHS direct, which indicated an up-to 4-hours wait time due to swine flu calls. Thankfully due to his age and symptoms we were called back within the hour, but were advised not to take him anywhere until his temperature reached 39.5° - not the same advice given at work when there had recently been a case of a toddler death due to a febrile convulsion. Because I couldn't say for certain he'd not been in contact with anyone with Swine Flu (hello, my sister was at University! She's not in contact with everyone she could possibly be infected by!) we were told there would be no swabbing or Tamiflu given. How interesting that just a week later swabbing has stopped in our area and people are just being given Tamiflu 'as a precaution' when my poor son had to go cold turkey.

Speaking with the Nurses and HVs at work there is little doubt that Jay did indeed have Swine Flu. He ticked all the boxes. Interestingly, the other half and I have not become ill, nor have my parents. A week on and he is fine, still a bit tired, but his symptoms cleared up quickly, leaving him just sleeping it off for the most part - he 'disappears' whilst I go to the loo or to get a coffee or something and I'll find him snuggled down in our bed fast asleep. Jay going to sleep that quickly, let alone taking himself to bed is usually unimaginable, so I know he must still be feeling pretty lousy!

So no LegoLand for us! And it will be a while before I can take more time off and we can all go as a family. I don't want to go in the school holidays, so we're looking at September as a possibility.

Thankfully he had enough energy for presents and balloons on his actual birthday, and did manage a short bike ride in the afternoon on his new bike, but it was a bit of a damp squib compared to what had been planned.

And then to round off the day, pretty much 2 years exactly to the minute since Jay was born, Michael Jackson died. So this birthday will definitely be one that sticks in my memory!