By Melissa Meehan
It was the stuff of nightmares.
It’s no secret my little girl doesn’t LOVE sleep.
So after battling with her to take her afternoon nap last month – you could imagine my disappointment when she woke up 20 minutes after she finally fell asleep.
I went into her bedroom to offer her a dummy and instantly panicked.
Her eyes had swelled over and she started screaming like never before.
Usually I pride myself of being strangely calm in emergency situations.
I’ve called an ambulance for my dad numerous times and I’m always able to separate the emotion from the moment and get the job done.
But when I could hear her wheezing – I lost all control.
My mind was racing. Should I put her in the car and drive to the nearest doctors, but if she’s struggling to breathe in her car seat was that a good idea? Should I drive to emergency with her on my lap? Was that even safe?
I quickly called triple zero, but explained I wasn’t sure whether I actually needed an ambulance but was worried the reaction may have been anaphylactic.
And because she was wheezing they organised an ambulance to come.
That was the longest 10 minutes of my life.
As soon as they arrived two paramedics welcomed us into their ambulance and checked her over.
I immediately apologised if I was wasting their time (very aware that they must only be used for emergency situations) but they assured me that this was an emergency.
They were amazing.
They were able to let me take a breath and looked over Little Miss before deciding to take her to the local hospital.
They even gave her a teddy and book for the ride.
They also stayed with us while we waited for a room and played games, with my daughter to immediately took a liking to the young male paramedic.
We spent four hours in emergency that afternoon and were told it was an allergic reaction to something unknown and were sent home.
We found ourselves at the Royal Children’s Hospital three days later. She had a virus and wasn’t keeping anything down.
We were later told by doctors at RCH that the allergic reaction earlier in the week was to the virus – very common in young children.
It was a scary time for our little family – and probably the most stressful since she was born (she spent a few days in the special care nursery).
A week later we got the bill for the ambulance, which was luckily covered by our private health insurance.
But it made me realise how lucky we were to have ambulance cover and access to such great medical care in Victoria.
I strongly recommend all parents have ambulance cover or private health insurance – it could be an expensive exercise if you found yourself in a similar situation without it.
