This week, I have Laura from Edinburgh Life with Kids for my Behind the Lens series. Laura lives in Edinburgh with her children Katie, Thomas and Ben. She loves reading books and worships coffee!

Without further ado here’s her story behind the photo she has chosen to share with us.

This photo was taken the day after my son went through emergency surgery at Denver’s Children’s hospital. We were on our first foreign holiday as a family but in the first week we were there, Thomas got a cold. By week two I was worried that he had a temperature so took him to the Children’s hospital. At 11 months he was too young to be seen by a pharmacist so the hospital seemed the best bet. I was really impressed with the care immediately. I was expecting to be told he just had a cold. But they suctioned his airways, took a urine sample, made sure I understood that I could give ibuprofen and paracetamol in rotation and gave instructions to come back in a week if the temperature hadn’t gone away.

A week later, his temperature was still high and a rash appeared. My drive to the hospital that time was horrible. I actually drove on the wrong side of the road and had to drive over the central reservation to get out of the way of traffic. I just couldn’t think straight and knew I needed to get to the hospital.

On arrival, the hospital went into overdrive. There had been a measles outbreak in the South of the State so we were put in a contamination room and everyone had to wear suits and masks. Thankfully, they were fairly confident that it was not measles but given the temperature had lasted so long they decided to do blood tests, X-rays and a CT scan.

The scan showed that Thomas had an abscess in his neck. It was partially blocking his airway and compressing a vein in his neck. They were surprised he was still moving at this point. I am so grateful that I’ve been able to breastfeed as that’s the only food he had in a few days so they were able to take him straight to surgery.

I remember waiting in the hospital but I’m not sure how I felt. It was like being on autopilot. We eventually stayed in hospital for three more nights. My husband had to fly home with the older kids before Thomas was ‘fit to fly.’

I saw so many doctors, nurses, and of course finance people that it all seemed like a whirlwind. I’m still not sure how I feel about it all. I know that I trusted the surgeon’s implicitly and came to love the nurses and their ninja medicine giving skills. But I think the lasting legacy has been to expect more from health care in the UK. Gone are the days when anyone tells me ‘it’s just a cold.’

You can find Laura online:

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