Eloise was born on the 20th July 2006. She weighed in at 8lbs 12ozs. On Monday 24th July, Eloise only woke twice during the night, my partner Jeanette remarked to how this was going to be a breeze compared with the twins. That afternoon Molly had a slight cough, we did not think anything of it at the time, but it was to be the start of the most stressful months of our lives.
The following day Molly’s cough got worse. A month previously there had been an article in the British Medical Journal stating how whooping cough was common again despite vaccination programmes because they were not 100% effective.
Two weeks earlier my sister visited, I noticed her son Dan had a bad cough. I called my sister and she told me Daniel was still coughing. The article in the BMJ advised GPs to always consider whooping cough when someone has a persistent cough for over two weeks. By Thursday, Molly was coughing like someone who smoked 40 cigarettes a day, alarm bells were ringing because everything I had read suggested whooping cough was lethal to infants. We had made our decision based on the theory that we would optimise our children’s immune system, in the same way our parents had so we were easily able to cope with measles mumps etc. Eloise was only a few days old hopefully there were antibodies in Janettes breast milk.
The strange thing about Molly’s cough was it lasted for about a minute then she is perfectly healthy like nothing is wrong. On the Friday I was concerned enough to make an appointment with the GP for Tuesday. This would have been the first time any of my children had been to the GP. By Sunday night, Molly was waking up every hour coughing, then coming into our bedroom to sleep in our bed where Eloise was sleeping in a cot.
When Eloise was born, we did not want Molly and Isabelle to be intimidated by her or feel left out, they were very much involved in the whole process. We encouraged them to touch and kiss Eloise but now as my certainty that Molly had contracted whooping cough from Dan, we were trying to keep them apart but as soon as you were distracted Molly and Isabelle were lying beside Eloise, fighting over who should cuddle her, then Molly would start coughing and we are trying to get her to put a handkerchief over her mouth while coughing. It became to much and we decided that it would be best if Jeanette and Eloise moved out of the house until the contagious period had passed.
After finding the website www.whoopingcough.net I was in no doubt Molly had whooping cough. Dr Doug Jenkinson a British GP had been studying whooping cough since 1977. His description of what I was observing in Molly was frighteningly accurate.
“Starts with a slight malaise and sometimes a mild feverishness, that after 3 or 4 days turns into an unremarkable dry cough and after 10 days from the very start of symptoms starts to become paroxysmal (Coughing spasms). In the third week and for the next 4 to 24 (roughly) weeks the cough generally is almost exclusively paroxysmal. Thus after 2 weeks from the start of the illness the diagnosis is made from the existence of paroxysms of coughing that continue for at least 2 weeks. A typical paroxysm comes unexpectedly (but may be precipitated by a change in temperature, or peculiar things such as a particular food). It is a succession of dryish coughs that follow each other without any inspiration so that the lungs become empty of air and the patient obviously develops severe facial congestion. There sometimes follows a brief period of a feeling of suffocation, and cyanosis(turning blue) may occur. Then sometimes (about 50% of patients) will occasionally, when inspiration suddenly comes back with a rush, make an inspiratory stridulous 'whoop'. The paroxysm may be repeated several times leaving the patient exhausted. There then follows a long period before the next paroxysm. Children tend to have about 10 paroxysmal a day at their worst. Paroxysms are commonly associated with coughing up sticky mucus and reflex copious salivation. Most patients will retch after a paroxysm as a matter of course. About 50% vomit at some time.”
Then I came to the part that sent a chill down my spine.
“1 in 100 children developed significant complications (always pneumonia).The worst complication is death. This is rare except in young babies for whom it is a more exhausting illness than some can stand. In babies it can lead to respiratory failure, convulsions and coma from encephalopathy. It is thought that some very young babies who get it, do not cough at all, but simply get the 'stopping breathing' bit that usually comes after a bout of coughing, with possibly very serious consequences.”
On Tuesday we had our appointment with our GP. The difficulty as Dr Jenkinson had predicted, the GP was unlikely to have seen whooping cough and if he had would not have realised. Vaccinated children don’t get whooping cough the get bronclitis. Standing before the GP were two very healthy looking children. Fortunately during the consultation, Molly had a coughing spell and he could see that it was not a normal cough, even if there was no whoop at this stage. We told him we wanted the children swabbed to make an accurate diagnosis. There is no medical treatment for whooping cough, but a number of Journals, including Dr Jenkinson had mentioned erythromycin an antibiotic as a prophylactic (preventing the symptoms developing) and passing it on to Eloise who we were hoping was safe now because she was so young she would have Janettes antibodies but may not still have them in a few weeks when children are supposed to have the Pertussis vaccine. Unfortunatly they did not have any swabs in the surgery. The GP said they would order them and call us.
Isabelle was delighted to be taking medicine, she had been feeling left out with all the attention Molly and Eloise had been getting, even attempting a few coughs herself and now she was the one getting medicine. By Thursday Molly’s cough was really bad, she would go all red in her face, as if she’d coughed out every last bit of air from her lungs, and then some more, then there is a pause which feels like eternity before she gasps the air in again. The GP called us on Thursday and told us that they were not able to do the test in the surgery. We headed straight to Kingston hospital, rang to tell them we were coming to Kingston Hospital with suspected “Whooping Cough” thinking we would be put in isolation. I don’t think they took us very seriously we were put into a cubicle where other people were. We were very uncomfortable with this, not to vaccinate was our choice and now other kids were being exposed to Mollys germs so I guess we would now be seen as selfish parents. No examinations were done but a nurse took swabs from the nasopharynx of all three. They also advised putting Eloise on the antibiotic..
That night was the first night we heard the whoop, which was accompanied by vomiting. This continued right up to Wednesday, Molly often vomiting three to four times after the coughing spasm. One night you would think you have turned the corner, the next night its worse again.
On the following Wednesday the Health Protection Agency called to inform us that they had been informed by the GP of the possibility of whooping cough and were able to offer some useful advice. The hospital called the following day, the diagnosis had been confirmed in Molly but not Isabelle and Eloise, which seemed at first like good news until that evening, Isabelle seemed to have a cough.
Isabelle had often made efforts at coughing due to the attention Molly was getting, so it was hard to decide if it was real or not, but over the next few days, just like Molly, her cough got progressively worse. Isabelle progressed to the whoop stage much faster than Molly and the coughing spells were never as bad.
On Tuesday 15th we took the girls back to the hospital. I was sure that Isabelle also had the whooping cough and the big concern was Eloise going to get it as well.
To be continued.