The American writer Kin Hubbard once said: “No one can feel as helpless as the owner of a sick goldfish.” I disagree. I can’t imagine anyone feeling more helpless than I did last night when Olivia woke up with a temperature of 39.7. I lay there feeling the heat come from her little body and quickly decided to take her to hospital. I may be helpless, but others are not.
She has been ill all week, as have I, but she has had a temperature which I have been spared from. It is an incredible thing, a temperature, because when it is there it is so scary and you think it will never go. But then when it goes you forget how awful it was. A bit like childbirth.
At the doctor’s yesterday (before the nocturnal visit) we had a meningitis scare. That was more than scary. For some reason their blood pressure machine went off the scale and when Olivia refused to move her neck they feared the worst. The main man was called in, a Dr Styles, and he quickly put my mind at rest. But for a moment I was staring into the abyss.
This morning at 3 am (and can I just add what a pleasant place Abu Dhabi is at that time of the morning) they said they needed to bring her temperature down. Olivia refused to take any medicine so they asked me rather gingerly if she would mind a suppository.
“Of course not,” I told them. “We come from France.”
They monitored her for an hour and a half and her temperature came down to 37.6. Phew. She slept well and is now in bed watching ‘Enchanted’ with Dr McDreamy. He may be even more effective than the suppository. I am going to snooze next to her and hope the scary moments are over…..
Copyright: Helena Frith Powell 2009
That really is scary. I’m so glad that Olivia is tucked up with Doctor Dreamy, she must be feeling better,
Tell her that it least her goldfish isn’t sick, just swimming around with Sausage John and about 2000 tadpoles.
N & M
Helena, you are so right, Abu Dhabi and even Dubai are pleasant places in the middle of the night. I assume you’re referring to the fact that these are nocturnal towns where the number of people and vehicles plying the streets only adds to our already strong sense of personal security? Like you, we lived for many years in France (in our case Paris) before moving to the Gulf. And although I regret that your recent experience of local hospitals was prompted by your daughter’s illness (scary beyond words, thank goodness she’s recovered), surely the health care in our cities, albeit primarily private, deserves a positive mention too?
ps: love your pieces and rely on you please to continue highlighting the less sensational side of life in the Emirates.
Hello Cate, yes they do, I was really impressed with Al Noor and as I said to Olivia last night, if we were in England we would have waited for four hours surrounded by people throwing up and/or bleeding from knife wounds and then maybe not even have got to a doctor. I have never seen an A&E unit so calm and clean. I was referring more to the lack of vehicles trying to drive into me (which happens every day on the school run but also happens in every other major city) and also to the almost cool air which was heavenly.
Hx
I knew Sarkozy’s visit in Abu Dhabi would cause trouble. It can’t be a coincidence. Poor Olivia! Give her a kiss from me
Yes, my experience of late night dashes to A&E units in Dubai has always been very positive too. And even when we were forced to go to a public hospital (as the police insisted we did after an accident) although suffering from only very minor injuries, we were seen by a doctor within five or ten minutes.
Something else that’s so different here about travelling around at night/early hours of the morning is that even as a woman alone I never feel insecure. And if my car broke down or I had to get out of the vehicle for some other reason, irrespective of where I was, I wouldn’t have the least concern waving down passerbys or having strangers come to my rescue. Now in London, on the otherhand, I think I would be reluctant to even walk across a police station carpark on my own in the early hours!
And can you believe I was back at the A&E with Bea yesterday afternoon? She decided to hurl herself down onto a mattress and hit her head on a shelf on the way down – blood everywhere. So I rushed her up there. When it happened I was in the middle of sending an email to the Daily Mail but we were seen so quickly and had NO waiting between any of the treatments (very minor injury thank goodness) in fact it all went to quickly I didn’t even have time to finish the email until we left. I could have written a book in a London A&E.
And a trilogy in a Dublin A and E!
My God, what’s happening out there with all these dramatic
dashes to A&E ? Sounds omnious – are you all London expats?
Pleased to hear Olivia is well again. What a super-scary moment. My friend works with terminally ill children which is something I could never comprehend being able to do. Thankfully not everybody feels the same. My daughter also had a high temperature with the flu the other night and a billion fears raced through me in minutes.
How does she feel now? Good luck!
Hi she feels much better thanks, but can you believe yesterday Bea fell on top of a classmates ringbinder which was left open and gorged her knee on it. Poor little love. The school nurse patched her up and said it was not a place they can stitch but she has to keep her leg straight for two days.
Hx