A child is sick, a parent’s worst nightmare.

As-salaam all, 

Growing up I was the sickly child. I remember the days that my mom and I would have to attend The Red Cross Children’s Hospital allergy clinic. I am my father’s daughter when it comes to the immune system. My Dad has a very low or weakened immune system, he has Bronchiectasis (A condition in which the lung's airways become damaged, making it hard to clear mucus - https://g.co/kgs/ssSCpX). Thank you, Mom and Dad, for looking after me. Alhamdulillah, I am much healthier and don’t suffer as much with my allergies. 

When you think of having children, you don’t often think about what genes will be passed on to them. With adopted children, it’s often that you are given not much information regarding health or genes when you at the placement meeting.  Often the reason is that the birth moms do not have the relevant information about their partners.

Being around kids (nieces and nephews) I was not too stressed out when at 3 months Ebrahim, caught his first cold/flu. So, I sent Ahmed to the pharmacy to get Karvol rub and Karvol drops. He came back and I massaged it onto Ebrahim's chest, under the arms and under the feet (old wives tale that is helps with a cold). After a few minutes, he was fast asleep and with no cough or stuffy nose.

We monitored him as all new parents would. The next day he was napping, I checked on him and I noticed that he was struggling to breathe… my heart started to race and I panicked. At this moment I call my neighbour (Anthea) who is the practice manager at OmniCare in Lansdowne Cape Town, (one would think at a time like this you call your husband),  to ask if I need to bring my little man to them. I took a video of him and send it to her, the doctor on duty advised me to take him to the hospital as they suspected it to be bronchitis.

I rushed and pack a bag for him only forgetting about myself. within minutes I was in the car en-route to the hospital, only then realizing I haven’t called Ahmed. I called and explained what happened, all I heard him say “ be safe, drive like the wind"

When I arrived at the trauma unit, I provided our adoption order, proving I was Ebrahim's mom.  You might be thinking that’s a strange question. It’s not, we used to carry certified copies of our adoption order everywhere we went. It was the only proof that we had to confirm that we are their parents.

Finally, we were taken into the trauma unit and the doctor examined Ebrahim but questioned his family history. Which is something I did not have I was only able to pass on the information that given to me by the social worker. The doctor requested an x-ray to be carried out to confirm a chest infection. 

If you’ve ever had to go for a chest x-ray you would know you have to be very still, a 3-month-old baby does not understand what that means. The radiologist was very friendly and patient with us and helped as much as she could. I eventually landed up holding him down by his arms, while another radiologist held his legs. Talk about traumatic, my poor baby had cried himself hoarse. I started reciting a pray and he started to calm down. 

Eventually, we received the results confirming that Ebrahim had bronchitis and needed to be hospitalized.

I felt something wasn't right, call it mothers instinct and I called Dr Paul Sinclair, Ebrahim's paed. He confirmed the worst, Ebrahim's chest infection was actually pneumonia.

In my opinion, Dr Paul Sinclair is the BEST Paediatrician, he is amazing with kids and parents. More importantly, my boys do not feel they are visiting a doctor when they see him. Not many doctors are able to do this with kids. A shout out to Dr Paul Sinclair, thank you and my family loves you.

Ebrahim was on so many meds and even had to use the nebulizer. He hated that he had to wear a mask that covered his face until I realized that if I rocked him while on the nebs, he would calm down.

Ebrahim had so many visitors, one would have thought he was royalty… lol. I was sending out messages every hour to update everyone on his progress. Ahmed used to come from work to us to spend time with us, go home and do it all over again the next day. 

I lost track of the days at one stage, I knew all the paediatric nurses on duty and got to know the other parents in our ward. We would help each other out at times, especially when Mom had to go to the bathroom or just get some fresh air. 

It's amazing how alike we are, that the Almighty granted us a blessing, a child that has the same allergies as Ahmed and I. 

This was not our only visit to the hospital, over the years we’ve had many visits not only for Ebrahim but for Uthmaan as well. At one stage Ahmed and Ebrahim were both at the hospital with the same virus… but that is for another post.

Till next time….

As – salaam 

Ayesha

p.s. let me know if you are enjoying any of these blog posts. Leave a comment and I will respond to you.