Day +85: Will the Kid Vampire Ever Shut Up???

I had forgotten just how noisy the "garbage" ward was.

So noisy. So so noisy. And it didn't help that we were in a room next to a kid that didn't stop screaming.

That's right. The kid screamed. And screamed, and screamed some more. If he wasn't screaming, he was screeching. If he wasn't screeching, he was shouting. If he wasn't shouting, he was screaming. And it went on, and on, and on. All yesterday afternoon. All last evening. All night. And all through the night.

The kid in the room next to us has two settings: loud and off. If he was awake, which was the majority of the time, he was loud. We only experienced the "off" setting for about 3 hours today. And he was only in the "off" mode because he passed out. After screaming and crying all night, I was not surprised he passed out.

The little prick and his screaming woke Sean 3 times during the night. Every time Sean woke, he needed a lot of comforting to get back to sleep, which meant I basically didn't sleep at all. The last time Sean was woken by the screaming was around 4.15am, and I physically couldn't stand up and comfort him at the cot any more, so I brought him into the very uncomfortable sofa bed with me and coaxed him back to sleep.

Thankfully, Sean was able to sleep in the sofa bed, and he ended up taking over the whole bed. Which left me with very little room on the bed on which to sleep, but I was tired enough that I didn't care any more, and I ended up passing out jammed on top of the metal frame of the sofa bed.

By the time Jonathan arrived at the hospital, I was a complete wreck and in tears after an exhausting night. My whole body was sore, my head was fuzzy from the lack of sleep, and I was in a foul mood. I'd had about 3 hours of sleep the night before last, with Sean having an unsettled night, so last night's couple of hours of sleep did nothing to improve my fatigue.

I walked past the room next to us a number of times during the hours he was sleeping, and really wanted to go in there and kick up a stink and make a huge racket to wake him. I was very resentful towards a little boy who was obviously sick enough to require hospitalisation, but who kept waking my sick little boy during the night. I thought about making a complaint, but didn't know what good that would have done.

Sean's temperature remained high all day long. Dr Barbaric came by to review Sean, and told us that there were three major checkpoints that must be met before the hospital would discharge us - the blood cultures had to come back negative for any viruses and these results generally took 48 hours; Sean's temperature had to fall below 38°C and stay that way for 24 hours; and Sean's blood count levels had to continue to increase or at the very least remain stable. With Sean's temperature hovering around 38.3°C for much of the day, there was no chance we were going home tomorrow.

Just when Sean was due for his nap at around 11am, Kid Vampire (the screaming kid next door) woke up, and started screaming and shouting again. I was not impressed, to say the very least. A main ingredient to Sean getting better was plenty of rest, and with Kid Vampire screaming all day long, no one was getting any rest. Fortunately, Sean was tired enough to sleep through the racket, at least for a short period of time.

The screaming just did not abate all day long, and I went to investigate the reason. It soon became obvious that Kid Vampire was screaming for his mother, who was nowhere to be found. Trust me, I went looking for her in the ward. Kid Vampire was left unattended in his room all day long, and all day long, he screamed, and screamed, and screamed for his mother. Since his mother disappeared, it was left to the nurses to look after Kid Vampire, which meant that the overstretched nursing staff was even more thinly spread throughout the ward.

At various points of the day, I walked past Kid Vampire's room, and saw at least 2 nurses with him at all times. Just after lunch, two volunteers arrived to try and keep Kid Vampire company, but all he wanted was his mother. Who was nowhere to be found.

Sean wasn't getting any real rest during the day, what with Kid Vampire screaming and shouting all day long. He was unattended all day - his mother was with him until about 10am, and then did not seem to be anywhere in the hospital - the nurses were left to look after him, and other hospital staff came to sit with him as well. All day, he screamed, and screamed, and screamed.

Dad and Mum paid us a surprise visit late in the afternoon, as they were worried about Sean and wanted to see what the latest troubles were all about. Sean was quite lethargic when they arrived, which made them a bit sad. They told us to hang in there and to have faith in our doctors.

The screaming and screeching from Kid Vampire went on for much of the afternoon, until around 7pm, when the mother finally resurfaced. Instead of getting ready to sleep, Kid Vampire wanted to spend time playing with his mother, so he replaced his screaming for his mother to trying to get his mother to engage with him, by repeatedly saying "Mummy" loudly. After 2 hours of playing, he started screaming and screeching again.

It was exhausting listening to Kid Vampire scream, and Sean fell asleep at around 8.30pm. I was hoping the screaming would not wake Sean, but after enduring two and a half hours of screaming, Sean is now awake, himself screaming in response to Kid Vampire. Must go and settle Sean and hope for some sleep tonight.