One thing we can never forget, even for one minute, is how quickly Eleanor can go downhill when she catches a bug!
She had been looking forward to her matinee show on the 23rd Dec for ages as this was the day her best friend Romilly would be coming to watch her perform, it was a BIG day for her, even the whole cast knew there would be a VIP visitor that day!
I woke quite early and went in to Eleanor’s room to wake her up. She was already awake, in tears with a headache and an absolutely raging temperature. She was devastated, she knew this meant she might not be able to do her show and was begging us to still take her to the theatre. We got her up, dressed, ate some breakfast and gave her some calpol to see how she went. After around 30 mins she really perked up and insisted she was absolutely fine and so we got ourselves sorted and left to head to the theatre.
Eleanor absolutely smashed her performance (yes, I am biased, I know!) and we couldn’t believe how well she had perked up considering how unwell she was that morning and she had the best time introducing Romilly to all her colleagues, and showing her the backstage area and all the props. After the show we all went and had pizza and then jumped on the train to head home.
On the train journey home Eleanor went quiet and sat with her eyes closed most of the way, by the time we reached home she said her head was hurting again so we decided to get her in the bath and straight to bed. Within hours she had really gone downhill, her temperate was 39.50c and she was sobbing with the pain from a headache.
We called our local hospital who told us to get ourselves there ASAP and they would have a room ready for her.
We packed a bag and Tim carried Eleanor downstairs to lie on the sofa whilst we grabbed coats and blankets, the pain in her head was so bad at this point she was sick all over herself and the sofa. Because she was lying down it went all in her hair and down the neck of her PJ’s so through the pain I had to get her upstairs and into the shower to clean her up before we headed off.
When we arrived at the hospital they did the usual blood tests, swabs and even ordered a chest X-ray. As it is flu season they did the swab for flu and said to settle for the night and hopefully we would have some results the following day.
By the next morning, we had the results that Eleanor has tested positive for Flu A, her temperature had stabilised and we were told that we would be able to go home that day once the doctors were happy and that all the medication Eleanor needed was ready!
So, yes, Flu, right in the middle of a West End show run!
Thankfully the other children are there to step in when these things happen so we gave Eleanor a few days to recover and she was ready and back at the theatre by the 31st only missing one show!