My sick Betty

Lately, life has been busy. Loooong hours at work, busy at home and therefore no blog posts. But always plenty to write about! I was just reading an update from one of my favourite bloggers, Mummy Hearts Money, and she has inspired me to JUST GET ON WITH IT! So thank you.

Last week, Miss Bethany was complaining of a sore tummy. She had one on the weekend and I thought, no biggie, take a panadol and you'll be right. But on Monday night, she was struggling to stand up at the shops, alarm bell number 1. 

We got home from the shops and she wasn't feeling well (very unlike her) so I told her to come and sleep with me so I could watch out for her as Dad was at work (again, same as always). After tears, she fell asleep but woke me at 2am with the phone in her hand, alarm bell number 2. She'd rang Dad to tell him how sick she felt so we decided to go to the hospital.

The doctor immediately suspected appendicitis and admitted her. Ben was at home on his own! with just a note telling him to get ready and go to school in the morning if Dad wasn't home by then. He slept in and missed the first day but was fine after that. After all, Bethany goes in and wakes him up everyday. He missed his 'alarm clock'.

Feeling much better!

Yes, the first thing she wanted after surgery was her phone.

In emergency, after a lot of painful prodding, they gave Bethany a needle of something for pain and nausea relief, followed  it up with panadol and because that didn't work, brought in the big guns of morphine. She described it as a tingling from head to feet followed by instant relief. Needless to say, she fell instantly in love with morphine injections! and there were a few more requests for the morphine during her hospital stay.

Next day, they took her away to the theatre for her operation. They told us when she got back that it was gangrenous and in a bad way, plus it was hidden behind her bowel. Apart from a few tears and complaining about some pain in the stomach, my tough little cookie managed her pain like a trooper throughout the whole experience. What a fantastic thing to have a great thresh-hold for pain. I think this will serve her well later in life with babies! I couldn't stand watching them try to find a vein for her drip, but she just laid there and let them dig around. And that was before the morphine!

After a week in hospital, she is back at home resting, with the whole of the school holidays to recuperate. Bethany never gets sick. She is such a healthy person, so it was such a shock to see her sick and I hated every minute of it. I slept with her at the hospital, and ran around after her to make sure she didn't do anything. It meant a week off work at a time where we are short staffed and busy, but I love that I was able to make her a priority and that they were so understanding of that. Apart from nipping in super early one day to catch up on a few things I was able to give her all of my attention, and I know she both needed and appreciated it.

There were some downsides to being on the kids ward (babies crying) but the upsides outweighed that. The nurses were great, there was a sleep-over fold out bed for parents, and breakfast was delivered every morning. How good is that?!

The fold-out bed wasn't too uncomfortable, I survived it.

Breakfast for 2 arrived every morning. Was very appreciative.

Poor Ben, I felt like I hadn't seen him for ages, but he is stoic, just watched TV at home and got on with things.

Sometimes you think can't afford personal time for your family, but when it comes to the crunch, its really easy to see whats important. This was for us.

And it cost us nothing. I booked her in as  public patient so I didn't have to pay the excess on my (unused) health fund, and she was treated so beautifully by the doctors and nurses at the hospital, and had her own private room as well.

So, one unnecessary body part removed, and the job is done. Lets hope we don't have one of these situations again in a very long time.

Have you had any experiences in hospital with your children? How was it?