Why I... care about meningitis
"I felt completely out of control. I couldn’t do anything to help him."
My second son, Thomas, was five weeks old when I picked him out of his Moses basket one morning after a disturbed night's sleep to find him kind of groaning at me. He was pushing his stomach out, like he was constipated.
He was just looking around the room but he wasn't moving. He was grey and every time I picked him up, he just screamed at me. He was clearly in pain. His hands were like ice but his temperature was high. His skin became mottled. No rash.
I rushed Thomas to A&E. They put me in a wheelchair with Thomas in my arms – he was really quiet, not moving very much. I’ll never forget seeing a sign above me say “Resuscitation” and I thought “Crikey, this is really quite serious”.
We were put in a curtained-off cubicle and about 12 doctors swarmed around the bed. Thomas was in sepsis shock, meaning his body was shutting down due to blood poisoning. They pumped him with antibiotics.
About four days later they had to do something called a lumbar puncture, where they curled him into a ball and took fluid from his spine with a huge syringe. My husband went with him and said it was horrific to watch. They sent the fluid for tests and when they came back, they showed he had bacterial meningitis.
I felt completely out of control. I couldn't do anything to help him. Meningitis can get into the brain and cause it to swell, leading to coma. Thomas didn’t need this and after several weeks of antibiotics recovered. Children can develop ongoing issues after meningitis, like hearing loss but, so far, Thomas is not showing any signs of any lasting effects.
When we came out of hospital, I went into this kind of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, because every time he cried, I was petrified and I was back in that moment. This lasted for about two years until I recognised the signs and was given support through cognitive behavioural therapy.
Looking back, I felt under a lot of pressure about whether I should react to my “Mum's Intuition” that something was seriously wrong with Thomas but I’m so glad I did. If I hadn't have listened to that intuition, it could have been a different story.
My advice to new mums is look at the advice maternity staff give you on meningitis in your red books. If your child develops cold hands and cold feet, a high temperature and is not feeding, take them straight to A&E.