After a relatively quiet weekend and a successful shopping trip in Oxford Street with Leanne (all 3 boys stayed at home and played with their toys) trachy change and MOT day loomed this morning. Of course when planning my diary in the weeks running up to this week I set aside Monday as MOT day as usual and planned a few things to do today, so my attempt was to squeeze everything in to one day. In order to do this, I decided to start bright and early this morning and get to SGH by 9 or 9.30 am instead of our usual 10.30 as my first “other” appointment was at 12 noon.
We went and saw Helen first, in her little office, and caught her trying to catch up after a week away. Having settled into our room, Helen joined us to take blood to send off for analysis and to decide on how to plan the day. The doctors rounds had started and everyone looked very busy as though they too were cramming two days into one.
Due to the bleeding that happened last week at trachy change both Helen and I felt it wiser to see if there was anyone from the ENT department who could assist so that, should something go wrong, there was someone present with the knowledge and skill to help out. Mr Daya is away this week, his colleague Lisa who has been looking after us recently, works at a different hospital on Tuesdays, that left the Registrar, Jazz, who had been away on honeymoon but we didn’t know when he was due back. A couple of phone calls later we established that Jazz was indeed back, he had the clinic from hell to deal with and could come and help us for 20 minutes at 1.30 pm.
Helen and I redid the dressing on Massimo’s Hickman Line and as the doctors couldn’t see us quite then, Massimo and I went off to our 12 pm appointment at the dressmakers to have the bridesmaid’s dress fitted. We actually got there half an hour early (a miracle for me to be early anywhere as many of you know!) but luckily Julie is a lovely lady and had no problem coping with our early arrival. We were back at SGH by 12.45, just enough time for me to grab a sandwich in the lovely canteen and get ready for Jazz’s arrival at 1.30.
The trachy change was as bloody as last weeks but having expected it this time it wasn’t quite as scary as last time. Again, like last time, once the bleeding settled, it actually stopped. Massimo took slightly longer to settle and regain some colour in his cheeks and it was only after he gave us a feeble smile that we continued with the general cleaning and tending of the trachy site.
My next appointment was with Judith, the respite nurse, at 3 pm followed by a hair appointment at 3.45 pm. Judith was late (3.10) but this didn’t really matter as we were still waiting for the OK from the docs to go home. Massimo’s wheeze has worsened over the weekend however (and very contrarily) his heart rate and his saturation levels have improved. The docs gave us the OK at 4 pm, luckily I managed to change my appointment to 6 pm and had a relaxing cup of tea at home before dashing out again and leaving Massimo and the dogs to be taken for a walk by Judith.
My very long hair is now definitely shoulder length as at least 5 inches were chopped off. I’m sure you will see evidence of this in due course, for now I am just getting used to the new look! Once back from the hairdressers I dashed off to spend a couple of hours with Mum and found myself coming home to Justin and Massimo at 9 pm. A very busy day, and a very busy week ahead. I know that stimulation is the best medicine for our little man but I really hope we aren’t overdoing it this week!