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Our big day tomorrow

26 replies

OhlittletownofEIDSVOLD · 12/12/2005 21:46

Well this time ( my time ) tomorrow we will be at the hospital waiting for dd1 to have her surgery. I am a little concerned as she has to fast from 2am until her surgery - she can have a drink of water or apple juice before 6am and then nothing til her surgery which is around 11.30am. Dh and I have decided that we will wake her up when we go to bed and feed her otherwise she will be going from about 6pm through til whatever time tomorrow until she eats again.

SHe is having her tonsils and adenoids out and possibly grommets in or the surgeon talked about just putting a little hole in her ear where the grommets would be that might just help her out.

I feel mroe concerned about this than I did her heart surgery - that is not to say I wasn't stressed and worried about that - I guess it was more a life or death situation and really we had not choice with that....

I am also concerned that she will be a lot more aware at 3 1/2 than she would have been at 8 weeks what is happening. I have no idea how we are going to keep it calm and together when she is desperate for a drink or something to eat... I would have thought they would consider putting a young child with sn further up the surgery list - but I am technically not supposed to know where she is on the list until we arrive tomorrow. I know she can't be first as she has to have anitbiotics to prevent blood poisoning due her cardiac condition and they take some time to be digested etc.

Sorry for rambling - am sure it will all be fine and I will be here in a few days saying it all went well BUT I'm a mother I have a licence to worry

OP posts:
Hulababy · 12/12/2005 21:48

Hope everything goes well.

MerryWays · 12/12/2005 21:49

Good luck

I'm sure the nurses will help with distractions where necessary, they must have had other SN children on ward before.

Will be thinking of you both.

COPPERfeelunderSantasTOP · 12/12/2005 21:49

Good luck for tomorrow. Will keep fingers crossed that it's all over and done with asap. xxx

anniebear · 12/12/2005 21:51

Hope all goes ok

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Lillypond · 12/12/2005 22:00

Good luck for tomorrow Eidsvold.

MulledMerlot · 12/12/2005 22:20

Will be thinking of you tomorrow Eidsvold. Hope all goes well for dd1

sharonkitten · 12/12/2005 22:21

Hope all goes well

Christie · 12/12/2005 23:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PottyinaPearTree · 13/12/2005 08:20

Thinking of you Eidsvold.

HollyLogos · 13/12/2005 08:29

Will be thinking of you today (tonight) eidsvoid. Hope all goes well.

(ps the fudge went down a storm in this household!)

Chocol8 · 13/12/2005 09:50

Thinking of you Eidesvold - please let us know how it all goes. (((((((hugs)))))))

COPPERfeelunderSantasTOP · 13/12/2005 10:16

I hope it's gone/going well.

I can never work out the time difference thingy.

OhlittletownofEIDSVOLD · 13/12/2005 11:29

oh I slipped up with the time thingy too - we are ten hours ahead of you and dd1's surgery is 14 Dec at 10.45 although I have it on good authority that the ward she is to be on is very busy - so hopefully some of them went home today otherwise we could get to the hospital tomorrow and be told her surgery has been cancelled.

She refused to eat much dinner tonight - probably as it is humid and stinking hot... all she wanted was a drink. She can't have anything to eat after 2am and no water or anything to drink after 6am - poor wee thing is going to be a nightmare!! OH well.

OP posts:
itllbelonelythisdavros · 13/12/2005 17:49

Will definitely be thinking of you! DD had to fast too, she was on for 1.30pm and right on time. But we stayed in the night before for a sleep study so it was probably easier to avoid eating in the "new and exciting" surroundings of hospital. She did get hungry and the parents of other kids who were allowed to eat were careful not to eat in front of her. The nurses were very nice and good but not much use with childcare type activity iyswim. We had two playworkers who I thought were pretty useless but she did go in the playroom for an hour or so while I finished my report for DS's transition review..... spare time, lucky me!

terryschonkyorange · 13/12/2005 22:19

Thinking of you eidsvold xx

THOMCATsForLifeNotJustForXmas · 13/12/2005 22:30

Oh Edisvold, just seen this. Thinking of you all and will check back in esp to check in and hear about her. Love to you and that beautiful girl of yours, TC xxxxxx

OhlittletownofEIDSVOLD · 14/12/2005 08:37

To sum up our day - BUGGER BUGGER BUGGER!!!!

This will be a ramble, rant and moan!!

We started the day early - up at 5am, with dd2 being dropped at my mums at 6.15 this morning. Arrived at the hospital, got admitted, waited for a littl while on the ward.

So far so good......

Then the anaethetist arrives and starts to check out dd1 who has a bit of a cough but nothing serious - she is still being dd1 - no slowing down, nothing.... BUT the anaethetist decides that she does not want to risk surgery - so cancels us at 9am. She also demands that dd1 have a chest x-ray and be seen by a respiratory physician - BUGGER - we got ourselves all psyched up for this to be today. Also horrified that medical specialist calls my dd1 the down syndrome girl from England..... dd1 had the little cough last week when we did our pre op appt and the ent specialist knew exactly why the surgery had been cancelled by the phone conversation - SO why not cancel it last week or get it checked out 10 days ago when we were at the hospital.

Luckily - dd1 could go and eat and eat she did - two slices of very thick raisin bread and almost 2 bacon and egg muffins ( dh's and mine.) Unluckily they wanted all this done today - so return to waiting room - then off for x-ray - so far so good. They then suction a sample from her chest as well... not pleasant although very quick. At about 11am we were taken to the ward - full of ill kids and dd1 bouncing off the walls - or actually the bed!!! Physio arrives to do some physio on dd1's chest - which she hates....

We wait and wait and finally about 1pm the respiratory physican arrives to say yes she sounds crackly and we need to give her antibiotics....and wants to send the physio back to teach us how to do the physio. Brief shining moment - when the respiratory doc arrives - as he is putting on stethoscope dd1 lifts up her nighty and puts it on her chest/stomach ready - very cute....

Then we wait almost 2 hours for someone to write us a script - for most of the day we had been ignored - once we got on the ward - don't see why we could not have gone home and then seen GP. Finally I ask where the script is - resp. doc did not write it - have to wait for registrar....that particular ward doc busy with emergency - fair enough- BUT they want to make us wait for the script.... Dh suggests that we know what the resp doc wanted and we would get GP to write script - nurse suggests that as we would have to pay - we should wait but she has no idea how long it would be - there were plenty of other docs wandering aroun d- how hard is it to write a script for a basic antibiotic....

So finally at 2.30pm - I call our GP who is more than happy to write the script - no charge. So dh and I tell them we are leaving.... nurse looks unimpressed but I figure after almost 8 hours there we are entitled to go home.....

BUT our crappy day doesn't end there - get back to car and the battery is dead as dead.... so finally we call out RAC and get new battery - whilst waiting for RAC - spy dd1 has NIT eggs as I am combing her hair!!!!!!!!! $120 later leave the hospital grounds at 4pm...tired, grumpy.. and that is just dh and I.

Now we have to wait 4 - 6 weeks to have another surgery date - just when dd1 is due to start new kindy and sedu kindy.... okay - no big deal but it is - I would like her to start kindy with the others iyswim.......

Antibiotics and inner health to boost her immune system, see GP in a week......

So now dh and I are knackered despite sitting around all day - two babies are in bed.

sorry to bore you all.....

OP posts:
JakB · 14/12/2005 08:44

Oh love, what a terrible day! Poor you and poor DD. Really sorry.

HollyLogos · 14/12/2005 09:17

Oh eidsvoid it sounds like you had a very tiring time. Is there any possibility of being a pain and nagging them to reschedule the op for 3/4 weeks time rather than 6 weeks? Lay it on about how you hope dd1 will start kindy with all the other kids in her age group?

Total at innane doctors comment. They are SO ignorant sometimes.

itllbelonelythisdavros · 14/12/2005 09:22

Oh dear Eidsvold, how bloody annoying! When DD had her op she was put on ABs and steroids 5 days before to clear up any possible infection and clear her lungs (routine). Couldn't they do this before the next op just to be on the safe side?

MulledMerlot · 14/12/2005 10:12

Oh No!

What a bloody awful day!

COPPERfeelunderSantasTOP · 14/12/2005 10:16

B*gger! What a truly awful experience for you all.

OhlittletownofEIDSVOLD · 14/12/2005 11:08

Well Davros we did do that 2 weeks before dd1's op and the bloody ent consultant knew that so why not just cancel last Monday not wait until this am - he must have known how cautious the anaethetist would be...

Am due to see GP next week so will see what we can come up with. The problem we face is most of the ENT consultants are off over January for their summer annual holidays - so may just not be the staff to go around HOWEVER I am thinking of calling tomorrow to see what I can find out.

Thanks for your sympathy and mutterings on my behalf - just know that you would all appreciate how hard it must have been for dd1

OP posts:
itllbelonelythisdavros · 14/12/2005 16:50

You mean you gave her the medication for 2 weeks before the op??? I'd have been swinging as I have so much trouble getting the stuff into DD. I thought we were marginal tbh as she'd had a bit of a cold and I'd told them about it at the pre-op appt, then after the op the surgeon/consultant said "oh, you were lucky we didn't cancel blah blah, loads of mucus came out of her blah blah" !!!

OhlittletownofEIDSVOLD · 14/12/2005 20:36

dd1 had this cough two weeks before the op and so the GP gave us some AB to knock it out of her and some steriod - I think that is what annoys us the most - the ENT specialist wouldhave known how picky the anaethetist would be ..... and despite hearing dd1 had the cold/cough - decided to proceed - figured he would have upped the ABs or cancelled then.

We are lucky as dd1 seems to be quite happy to take any medicine provided it is not cherry tasting.

Dh has gone into work even more annoyed than he was last night. Dh works at the hospital where she was to have her surgery... will be interesting to see if he says anything. I am thinking of writing a note to the head of Anaesthesology (?) and asking that they train their staff in appropriate use of language - dd1 is XXXXXX ( her name) not that little down syndrome girl from England....

OP posts: