So as some of you know... most of you know... I've spent the last 4 days in hospital with DD1 who is almost 5 with viral meningitis.

I'm on a soap box atm, so just hear me out and become familiar with symptoms and signs of meningitis so they can act quickly if something happens.

We were lucky, it was viral meningitis and I caught it early.

DD1 on Thursday morning was a bit crook, DH took her to the GP when he took DD2 and her temp was 39.5 while he was there an hour after panadol. On Friday early morning around 2.30am she vomited and had a temp of 40.2. We kept treating the temp as there weren't any other signs.

*side note* DD1 does not exhibit many signs of pain

DD1 on Friday struggled with the temp, I gave panadol and neurophen and tried to get fluids into her. At 1.30pm I gave her neurphen because her temp was 39.7, I hopped in the shower with DD2 who had croup on Thursday and I was still worried about her. We came out of the shower & DD1 was huddled under a blanket. She said the light hurt her eyes. I phoned DH who said not to worry, blah blah blah. I told him I was going to pack up and head to the hospital and to join me in an hour or two. Nothing to worry too much about.

We got to the hospital and DD1's temp was 40.2, her heartrate was high, her BP was high. They put her straight through the ED into an isolation room. They took bloods and found her white cell count was enormous. They scheduled a lumbar puncture and CT scan. While we were waiting, she perked up and started telling me fart knock knock jokes. They observed and called off the tests but gave us a diagnosis of viral meningitis. She had a headace and enough symptoms. They scheduled another lumbar puncture test for the next morning.

The next morning the paed & I talked about what was going on. Apparently her blood tests showed a child who should be near death. Who should be unable to move and completely flat, and yet DD1 was sitting up and talking with me. So they were deeply concerned, but didn't know what to do. We decided against a lumbar puncture because her bloods were too severe to put her under a general anaesthetic, but she was too bright to put a needle into her spine.

So the next 3 days were spent with extremely high temps up and down and a febrile convulsion or two. She wouldn't eat and couldn't do much at all. It was extremely scary.

I just want people to be aware of meningitis. So they too can move quickly and keep their kids safe.