Black night

I'd forgotten what fun a night in hospital is. The boy had a mixed night. Much as predicted.

Post-op is always a scary sight. Tubes everywhere. An arterial line in his hand. Catheter to monitor his wee. Two canulas in his foot. Heart montitor pads at the shoulders and chest. Sats monitor on the finger. Oxygen tube attached to the trachy. The upsetting thing is that they say "you can give him a cuddle" but the lines are such that there's no way you can do it. And
with neurosurgery you want to leave them lying down anyway. So you ineffectually stroke their hand or just sit and watch them.

He did have a high temperature overnight and vomitted regularly until the early hours. But mostly the morphine helped him doze through it all. He is still asleep, cuddling little panda (who has acquired a head bandage as well). His face is rather puffy after the operation.

It's always hard to sleep on the ward. Cubicles are relatively the easiest but high dependency bays are much harder, since there are 4 or 6 children there and a couple of parents plus two nurses.

The boy is in a bay. You sleep right next to his cot. You try not to be too deeply asleep, in case something happens. And with the boy, the trachy means it happens very quietly. The day was easier as the nurse looking after him was one that looked after him after his last op. This gives you confidence as everyone initially says how complicated he is. Didn't know last night's. Stayed up for quite a while talking with her about him and dealing with him when he vomitted. Cleaning him up and suctioning, trying to make sure that none of it got into his lungs.

Then tried to get some sleep myself. But bays are noisy places with monitors, syringe drivers and pumps of various kinds regularly bleeping. They always make me wake with a start to check whether any of the bleeps are from his equipment. And one of the other kids in the bay had a bad night, moaning about pain and shouting at his mother. Got two lots of three hours sleep. Bit gritty-eyed but a shave helps a bit psychologically.

Today's issue is his MRI, which the surgeon said he should have. Doesn't seem to have been pre-booked when the op was fixed. I reminded them and so now he's on a waiting list. It has to be now or not at all because of the swelling and then scarring. Because only we have the boy's interests at the forefront of our minds, rather than that of a number of kids, you spend some time trying to think ahead and check things haven't been forgotten. Might sound all very pushy parent but it is the product of a bit too much experience.