39,7°C

It was looking so good. Abbe came through amazingly quickly after the operation. Incredible in so many ways. He cycles and runs around in the corridors, climbs chairs and even has a go on the slide, with a bit of encouragement. We’ll be out of here in a few days’ time, I thought.

I’m not so sure anymore.

Abbe has had a slightly raised temperature all the time, since his operation. That’s not unusual. Your immunisation system gets triggered as soon as someone messes around with your body. You take a daily C-reactive protein test, to detect any infections or inflammations in your body. The temperature has been a steady 38°C, but yesterday the CRP was on the rise, so a scan was carried out, to check for any fluid accumulation around the operation scar.

There was some fluid. But nothing to worry about according to the cardiologist who did the scan. Today, we did a new scan which still showed some fluid but – slightly less. So far, so good.

But now, this evening, the temperature rose quickly. Suddenly, the thermometer showed 39.7°C. Strange. The last thing I did tonight before returning home to take over from big brother’s babysitter, was to, together with my wife, hold on to a panicking, heavily perspirating Abbe, so that three nurses could find a vein for a blood sample. For the second time, just today.