Life seems to be going at some sort of record pace at the moment. Every time I think, “oh, here’s a few days that seem to be quiet”, nope, life has to hurl yet another thing at me.
A perfect example of this was last Thursday. My son had been put on the waiting list for surgery about 6 weeks ago, and this surgery was to be done at Townsville, which is about a 5 to 6 hour drive away, depending on traffic, roadworks, and my bladder (damned blood pressure pills) !! This is due to a lack of specialists and surgeons who want to live away from a capital city ( I still don’t understand why, I mean Cairns is almost heaven on earth !!) Anyhow, at 11.45am, last Thursday, I get a call from the admissions of Townsville University Hospital, ” we have a cancellation tomorrow, would you like to get your son’s surgery done tomorrow??” Well, catch 22, hell yeah, I would rather his surgery be done sooner rather than later, that way it’s not hanging over our heads for the next 11 months, but holy heck, that means this massive drive, after I have just been busting a gut doing some major maintenance on the house this morning, and I would need to be packed, ready to go, in an hour, to make it to Townsville before dark.
Well, obviously, we went to Townsville. Honestly, my head has only just started to stop spinning this morning, it’s been a hell ride since Thursday. Somehow, miraculously, we managed to get clothes packed, all the essentials (medicines, my CPAP machine, toiletries) the car checked over, and somehow, accommodation booked, as well as a much needed shower for me ( remember I had been doing major house maintenance just prior to the phone call, sweating my backside off in the tropical heat), all in an hour. Then, we were in the car and going, by 1pm.
We arrived in Townsville at 6pm, miraculously having a fairly reasonable drive down, I had to check in to the accommodation, check how far the hospital was ( less than 5 minutes) and get some dinner sorted ( we would have had dinner at the accommodation, but it was Trivia Night, so all the tables booked), we ended up with some god awful Domino’s Pizza ( it’s years since I had Domino’s, and hopefully I won’t make that mistake again) and by 8pm, we went to bed, our appointment to go through the admission process was 6.30am.
So Friday came, I managed to eat a couple of slices of cold pizza for breakfast, and to get a coffee down the hatch, before we had to go to the hospital. After a bit of waiting, and going through 2 waiting rooms and 2 lots of admissions processing, my son finally went in to the operating theatre at 11.30am, almost 24 hours after getting the phone call. He was put under general anaesthetic and I was whisked away from the theatre so they could get on with the job. As nervous as I was for my son, I needed to have a smoke, a coffee and something to eat (thank goodness I was able to have that pizza before I left the accommodation), I hadn’t been able to do any of it for 5 and a half hours.
The surgery went well, and he was finished an hour later, they called me in to recovery, and he was very groggily starting to wake up, by 3.30pm, we had everything we needed (medications for pain) and finally left hospital, I quickly picked up some microwave dinners for both of us, and we went back to the accommodation, falling asleep by 7.30pm. What a marathon of a day !!
Saturday, we were able to return home (we had to stay in Townsville for the night just in case something happened where we needed to go back to the hospital) and as we were both awake at 5am, we got going, having a really great breakfast of bacon and egg rolls at Yabulu, just north of Townsville, and after a slower drive home, we got back around 11am. After unpacking, getting my son comfortable ( it will take at least a week for him to be fully mobile again) and getting my first home made meal in a few days, I slept for a few hours, as I was completely wiped.
I have had massive brain fog since getting home, this morning being the first day that I have had a bit of clarity. I, myself, have surgery today, which just adds to the fun, it is only under local anaesthetic, and will be done in my local GP’s surgery, but it will be another thing to add to the list of crap going on. This month we have still more happening, with my son going in for some dental surgery in 2 weeks (it is a rough month for him, but it will all be worth it, and he understands it will be as well). I have to say, I will be glad that November is over when it is, and hopefully December is easier !!!
Anyhow, my son is now up, and I have to attend to what needs to be done, so I will leave it here for now. I hope you all have a wonderful day.