Mini cholangitis scare

We've had our first 'unexplained fever'. Hannah developed a slightly raised temperature on Sunday evening about 6. Calpol brought it down, but on Monday morning the temperature had begun to climb again and by lunchtime had reached 39.5 degrees (103 in farenheit), with no other symptoms so we decided it was time for a trip to the hospital. The upshot is that the LFTs came back as normal so it was put down to being viral, and we were sent home, but it was a bit like pulling teeth to get there! More of that shortly....

Any BA/Liver parents out there will appreciate this as a brilliant set of LFTs
Total Bilirubin 6 (0.35 in US measure)
Albumin 36
Alk Phos 275
ALT 49
AST 60
Hurrah!

So....the story. As per the 'swollen tummy' incident we were seen first of all by a house officer. I told her that there should be a copy of the shared care guidelines from Birmingham and the letter from Dr Coad on the ward. No, not on the computer. No, we don't keep any files on the ward, they are all in the 'bowels of the hospital'. So I produce Dr Coad's letter. Ah, you need to be seen by a registrar. Wait for the registrar to finish with another patient. Well, Hannah seems fine, I don't want to take blood unless it's really necessary, I'm sure it isn't, I'm sure it's viral but I'll just check with the consultant. Wait for the consultant to finish with another patient AND write up the notes. Oh no, don't assume anything without ringing Birmingham, they're very fussy about their patients. Registrar phones Birmingham. Overheard: 'If it were ascending cholangitis there would be other symptoms wouldn't there? Oh right, not necessarily. And it's not really necessary to do bloods is it. Oh right, it is.' So it took 2 hours to get to the point where they took the bloods, whereas if they had been able to find the guidelines from Birmingham they would have told them to do the bloods straight away. SIGH!

I am going to ask for my own copy of these guidelines to take with me if I have to go there - it will save a lot of time and bother.....Anyway the good news is that today Hannah is 100% well and completely fever free, so not only was it 'just a virus', it was a short lived one too, so we are very thankful.