Blog Appendix
My, what a fun week that was.
On Sunday Jessica started complaining of a tummy ache. She was still complaining on Monday. Being the horrible parents we are, we told her she had to goto school. She asked if she could at least skip swimming. We told her no.
so we felt a bit bad when later on that night we took her to hospital and she was diagnosed with appendicitis. Oops.
We left her there overnight - she was fine with being left alone - and we went back in the morning, bright and early. We then seemed to spend hours waiting around. She was seen by a few people as they weren't entirely sure it was appendicitis (blood and urine tests normal), so they tried to book her in for an ultrasound before surgery. This didn't look like it was going to happen, but eventually it did, and nothing really showed up. Before we knew it, they were suddenly prepping her to go down for surgery.
We waited around for a couple of hours and eventually she came back minus an appendix, and in a fair amount of pain. She slept a while and then woke up in the evening. Ele stayed the night in the hospital. I went home, and ended up working until gone midnight with a stupid work problem.
The next day (Wednesday) she was in a lot of pain (she was on a drip all this time, and didn't eat a thing for several days), and the nurses were really being rubbish with the painkillers. She was saying the whole day that paracetamol and ibuprofen weren't doing enough, but they didn't communicate this properly to the consultants. Eventually in the evening (when I arrived with Saff, Joe and Anise for a visit) she had a big panic attack which they were also rubbish at sorting out. The consultants finally arrived and prescribed some codeine, but as that contains paracetamol and she had just been given some, she couldn't have it for another few hours... Eventually she got it and had a better sleep.
On Thursday she actually managed to eat and drink a bit which was good. She was also more mobile, and on Friday she was able to eat quite a lot and was able to come home in the afternoon.
She made good friends with the girl in the next bed - Dani, who was the same age as her and had the same operation the day before. The two of them were so alike it was quite funny. We got on well with her parents, so we ended up being quite good friends at the end of it as well.
She's now got a couple of weeks off school (1 week plus half-term), and no sports for a month.
The worst bit was all the chavvy families who came and went in the ward. I felt sorry for one boy, who was diabetic, whose mum was an alcoholic (and didn't visit), and his dad who was on the dole for a living, and also didn't bother visiting. The worst lot were a girl that came in and had about ten members of her family in with her. They were all VERY loud, and had mobiles ringing and were swearing like sailors. I don't mind swearing and I do it myself, but there's a time and a place and a childrens ward is not one of them! And then - in the biggest act of "pot/kettle" I've ever seen, they had the nerve to complain about 2 kids who were playing in the corridor. Yes, they were making a bit of a noise (but less than they were!) but all this lot did were go "SHHH!!!" really loudly, and make loud complaints like "where are the parents?", "there's sick kids in 'ere can't they keep it down!" and then swear some more. The parents were in the main part of the hospital where they had also been admitted, actually. In the end Dani's mum got them all chucked out!
What a fun week!
On Sunday Jessica started complaining of a tummy ache. She was still complaining on Monday. Being the horrible parents we are, we told her she had to goto school. She asked if she could at least skip swimming. We told her no.
so we felt a bit bad when later on that night we took her to hospital and she was diagnosed with appendicitis. Oops.
We left her there overnight - she was fine with being left alone - and we went back in the morning, bright and early. We then seemed to spend hours waiting around. She was seen by a few people as they weren't entirely sure it was appendicitis (blood and urine tests normal), so they tried to book her in for an ultrasound before surgery. This didn't look like it was going to happen, but eventually it did, and nothing really showed up. Before we knew it, they were suddenly prepping her to go down for surgery.
We waited around for a couple of hours and eventually she came back minus an appendix, and in a fair amount of pain. She slept a while and then woke up in the evening. Ele stayed the night in the hospital. I went home, and ended up working until gone midnight with a stupid work problem.
The next day (Wednesday) she was in a lot of pain (she was on a drip all this time, and didn't eat a thing for several days), and the nurses were really being rubbish with the painkillers. She was saying the whole day that paracetamol and ibuprofen weren't doing enough, but they didn't communicate this properly to the consultants. Eventually in the evening (when I arrived with Saff, Joe and Anise for a visit) she had a big panic attack which they were also rubbish at sorting out. The consultants finally arrived and prescribed some codeine, but as that contains paracetamol and she had just been given some, she couldn't have it for another few hours... Eventually she got it and had a better sleep.
On Thursday she actually managed to eat and drink a bit which was good. She was also more mobile, and on Friday she was able to eat quite a lot and was able to come home in the afternoon.
She made good friends with the girl in the next bed - Dani, who was the same age as her and had the same operation the day before. The two of them were so alike it was quite funny. We got on well with her parents, so we ended up being quite good friends at the end of it as well.
She's now got a couple of weeks off school (1 week plus half-term), and no sports for a month.
The worst bit was all the chavvy families who came and went in the ward. I felt sorry for one boy, who was diabetic, whose mum was an alcoholic (and didn't visit), and his dad who was on the dole for a living, and also didn't bother visiting. The worst lot were a girl that came in and had about ten members of her family in with her. They were all VERY loud, and had mobiles ringing and were swearing like sailors. I don't mind swearing and I do it myself, but there's a time and a place and a childrens ward is not one of them! And then - in the biggest act of "pot/kettle" I've ever seen, they had the nerve to complain about 2 kids who were playing in the corridor. Yes, they were making a bit of a noise (but less than they were!) but all this lot did were go "SHHH!!!" really loudly, and make loud complaints like "where are the parents?", "there's sick kids in 'ere can't they keep it down!" and then swear some more. The parents were in the main part of the hospital where they had also been admitted, actually. In the end Dani's mum got them all chucked out!
What a fun week!
posted by Nej at
5:12 pm
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