Holding my nerve....

The eagle eyed among you will have realised I have not updated for a few days. Blog fans will know this is never a good sign, and this is no exception. You see, I have spent the best part of the last week curled up in an anxiety induced ball on the floor. Yup, Elin's been poorly. Pretty poorly. Three days before we are due to travel for THE BIG DISNEY TRIP we found ourselves on Children's Ward. She had gastro issues again, the likes of which we haven't seen since her last bad bout at the end of January. She was a bit 'off' on Sunday then Paul and I went away to Edinburgh on Monday (where we got married) to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary (yeah TENTH one of us deserves a medal I'm just not sure which one!!) . Luckily we were only gone one night and good old Nanny not only managed the situation but didn't leave us any the wiser whilst we were away that Elin was on a bit of a downward spiral. By the time we got home she was basically sleeping all day and having the dreaded diarrhoea as well as retching her guts up. So on Wednesday we took her to the Ward and heard the immortal words nobody ever really wants to hear from the registrar when you have a poorly girl three days away from a holiday 'there's not an awful lot we can do'. They sent a stool sample off and told us to give dioralyte instead of milk, which is what I was already doing. So home we trudged with our fingers crossed for a little miracle and swearing we were never going to give Elin antibiotics ever again (absolutely convinced the course she had last week triggered this, and discovering it's very common in kids like Elin, but that's for another post)
The next day (yesterday) Elin showed tiny signs of improvement e.g. smiling when awake. However, she still slept A LOT. She still retched a lot. But, thanks to the amazing pharmacist in our local Chemist who suggested a special type of dioralyte called dioralyte relief, which not only re-hydrtaes the body but also works to actively stop diarrhoea , we didn't have any bottom explosions. By the time she went to bed last night I unfurled myself from the foetal position, stopped rocking back and forth and started to pack. I re-introduced Elin's milk, diluted quite a bit with water and hoped for the best.
WELL. This morning is a different kettle of fish, which is why I'm updating (I would never give you bad news over a holiday, dear reader, if there wasn't good news to follow I promise). She is Elin again. We've been 24 hours without diarrhoea and aside from the odd throat tickle there's been no more retching. She has sat and watched 'Easter Parade' with me this morning and laughed her head off at the big musical numbers (it's in her blood, being a Judy fan- you can't buy good taste).  Her cheeks are rosy again and her temp is consistent. In short, I think we're over a hump and by the skin of our teeth, too. After the term we've had we really could have done with a slightly more stress-free start to the holiday but since when has life with Elin ever been simple?
So as I prepare to pack a million meds, syringes, a pump, milk bottles, giving sets, feeding tubes, nappies, mic-key button spares, saline, water bottles et al I will leave you with a hopeful heart and a promising picture I took this morning. Keep your fingers crossed for us blog fans, we booked this trip last June and we don't fancy missing out!
Lots of love xx

Oh, hi! Which way's the Eurostar??