Today’s activities started with Easter crafts that included: making hatching eggs made from felt; colouring rainbow and unicorn bunting; and decorating wooden fairy doors for the garden. Genevieve was in her element and literally flitted from one activity to the next seamlessly. James enjoyed making a big mess.
Whilst rummaging in the playroom cupboard for the Easter craft (that I’ve clearly been collecting for longer than I realised), I discovered a Trolls magic colouring book. The book contained special paper that reacted with a set of seemingly colourless pens to make colours magically appear before your eyes. Pretty amazing for the kids! Both of them loved it meaning that the inevitable standard procedure shortly followed: a new thing is introduced and World War Three breaks out as to who it belongs to/who had it first/who’s playing with it next. Then I tell them that, if they don’t share it, I will put it in the bin, followed by maybe more shouting/stropping, and ending with them relenting and sharing. It’s exhausting.
We did achieve something happily productive today – James tried on his bow tie for Auntie Daisy and Uncle Ben’s wedding later this year! It was nice to do something so far removed from the current lockdown situation, and he looked exceedingly dapper to boot.
The weather was so good that we got out the paddling pool as well as the water table. For a scary moment we thought we’d lost the stopper for the pool, but Stephen eventually realised that the mysterious object we’d had been sitting on the kitchen windowsill for months was in fact the missing stopper. Disaster averted!
I took the opportunity to do some doodling while the kids were in the pool. It was sadly short lived as they were more intent on emptying the pool of water and spraying it all over me rather than playing with it nicely. Joy. I still managed to finish some doodles which was good.
For the short time Stephen was out of bed today, he had the kids on watering the garden duty. They really loved this but you can’t let them just go loose or it ends with everything being wet (including the children).
That night I spoke to the Hollingdale clan on Zoom. Stephen wasn’t feeling good by this point so he slept while I chatted and enjoyed a Corona. It was good to see everyone but also sad that we can’t all be together again for a while yet.
As alluded to earlier, Stephen tried to get out of bed but ended up going back for a sleep. He was still feeling pretty rough and struggling with this illness. It’s so rubbish for him and I know how frustrating he finds all of it.
Things took a scary turn for the worse in the evening. Stephen told me that his chest was feeling tight and that it had been getting worse throughout the day. My pharmacist friend had told me that people go downhill very quickly with COVID so I was extremely worried when Stephen told me (and annoyed he hadn’t said anything sooner). I suggested we phone 111 but he didn’t want to make a fuss. Half an hour later I asked how he was feeling and he said it had got worse, so I grabbed the phone and took matters into my own hands.
I answered the operator’s questions on Stephen’s behalf as he said he didn’t want to speak to them (partly out of embarrassment and partly because he felt so unwell). Within minutes they’d concluded that Stephen needed to speak to a medical professional. We were put on hold for a moment and then found ourselves connected to the ambulance service. That was not something either of us expected.
They insisted on speaking to Stephen. The shock of being put through to them had alleviated some of the embarrassment so he took the phone. He said later that he still didn’t really believe he was that ill but that this moment changed all that. After answering a few questions the ambulance crew member said that they’d be sending an ambulance to review Stephen. We were both terrified that they considered this ambulance worthy.
We were relieved that the kids were asleep as we didn’t want to freak them out. We waited nervously but not for long as the ambulance arrived twenty minutes later. The two ambulance crew members exited their vehicle wearing masks, goggles, gloves and aprons – it wasn’t quite a full bodysuit but it wasn’t too far off. They also had a large piece of equipment in tow.
They came in, gave Stephen a medical mask to wear and then hooked him up to the machine they’d brought. They were testing a number of things but the key ones were temperature and blood oxygen saturation. Stephen’s temperature was just above normal as he’d taken a paracetamol not long before we called 111 but we assured them it had been sky high for days. Thankfully his blood oxygen saturation wasn’t low which was a very good sign.
They listened to his chest and breathing while asking more questions. They ultimately concluded that he was a moderate case. That meant he was worse than a mild/standard case but not bad enough to have to go to hospital (for the time being at least). They did say that he could go if he wanted and added that the categorisation had just been changed that day – he would have been deemed hospital worthy only the night before.
Stephen said he’d rather stay at home which I was relieved to hear. The risk of being exposed to more infected people in hospital did not outweigh the benefit of being monitored and assessed further. I was going to be keeping a very close eye on him anyway and the hospital is only a mile away if there was an emergency.
We thanked the ambulance crew for coming so quickly and for all they were doing. Stephen then retired to the blow-up bed in the playroom and I headed upstairs for some well-earned sleep. I don’t think either of us slept at all well though – the adrenaline was still pumping. I’m so grateful for the NHS.
The Smiths Family Blog 