Being sick makes things so confusing!

Last week Thursday Abbey had the start of a cold. It wasn't bad, just a runny nose and a bit of night time coughing. The next day she was totally miserable and started getting diarrhoea that was pretty mucousy. At first i thought it was from the canola oil we were trialing. Runny nose and a cough are a very common allergy symptom for her with food and adding the mucousy poop to that didn't look promising. I was so disappointed but decided to pull the canola oil and see if things improved. Although her mood didn't improve or her cold, the diarrhoea settled. I really thought it was the canola oil and was expecting things to keep getting better. They only got worse though as the next day she developed a high fever. Because she reacts to normal panadol and nurofen i have the panadol suppositories for her. I tried to give her one but her diarrhoea had returned and within minutes she had pooped it out again. I tried another straight away with the same results. Her fever was just getting higher and higher. Those were the last two suppositories i had left so i rang Reuben to ask him to pick some up on his way home. I am very thankful that he came home early at 4.30pm because by that time her fever was so high the thermometer wouldn't read it anymore. It was just beeping at me like crazy and flashing high on the screen. I think it must have been over 40 degrees. I was going to take her to hospital straight away but Reuben convinced me to take her for a lukewarm shower first and then when she was out see if the panadol had worked at all. (thankfully she managed to wait half an hour before pooping again.) She almost fell asleep on me in the shower and we wasted a lot of water! But oh well, anything to make my little girl feel better. After i had dressed her again i rechecked her temp and thankfully it was down to 39 degrees. Still high, but after another 10 minutes it was back down to 37 degrees. What a relief!! 

The next day her fever stayed at around 38 degrees all day and the next day she had no fever at all. But she was still very miserable. On Sunday night she basically screamed blue murder all night. She refused bottles and i just couldn't calm her down. By 6am after i had finally gotten to her sleep after another one of her screaming fits, it hit me that she was always pulling on or putting her hands over her ears and that she screamed worse if i laid her a certain way on me in the rocking chair. I started to wonder if she might have an ear infection. When she woke up later on that morning she started out happy, but within half an hour was a hysterical screaming mess again. Knowing she reacts to all antibiotics i didn't even want to bother with a doctor. I used some amazing onion juice and put a few drops in both ears. Within 5 minutes the screaming stopped and she was touching her ear like it was brand new. :) She was back to herself after that and although we had a lot of wake ups the next night from coughing, it seemed she was finally better.

It seems weird that i am thankful she was just sick and not reacting to the canola oil. But food is so important to us and every fail is devastating! Colds and flus come and go within days but if a food is a fail she will lose it for a long time! Since her cold went away we have returned to the canola oil without any problems and have classed it as a pass!!! Yippee!!! We have now started spinach as of yesterday but this one isn't looking too promising! I hope in a few days i have some good news, but i'm really not expecting it after the screaming and tummy pains we dealt with last night and this morning. 

 Abbey with Reuben just before our shower when 

her fever was over 40 degrees

 I kicked Reuben out of bed to deal with Abbey

at 4.30am after basically not sleeping for a 

whole night. This is how i found them 

at 8am when i got out of bed.