The week from hell would be an understatement, an adventurous, emotional and lengthy journey for all of us. We had a lovely Fathers Day at Morpeth, and took a few snaps of the kids and Grant. 
All seemed well, Sunday night Coop decides to take to his ear with a cotton bud, and by the time I realised what he had done, there was blood running out of his ear and down his cheek, I was horrified. I rang Maitland hospital to ask them what do I need to do to help stop the bleeding before I brought him up, and they said not to even bother as there was nothing that they could do for him, just give him some panadol and take him to your local GP in the morning, so of course 9.30am got into to see the local GP who was horrified that Maitland wouldn't even see him and told me to go straight to the John Hunter's emergency as it looked like a part of the cotton tip was still lodged in his ear, and he could not determine the extent of his damage, whether he had a perforated ear drum or not. So off we trot to the John Hunter, upon arrival and telling our story, we are told do not give him anything to eat or drink until he is seen too incase he is sent off somewhere else. We are not even seen to until 2.30pm, where again we are re-confirmed that yes there is damage done to his ear, do not know extent as there is something lodged at the base, not equiped to do anything here, you will need to go to ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) for a specialist to see him. After a lengthy delay of 1 hour we are told EBT can't see us until Wednesday, but you need to go around to ENT now and make an appointment. In all this time poor Coop has had no food, drink or pain relief. We venture to ENT and the lady makes an appointment for 9.30am Tuesday morning. We get home from JH at 5.30pm. A restless night, and again no breakfast, drinks or pain relief for Coop, get to JH at 9.30am only to be told receptionist had made a mistake and there is no ENT clinic on today, can you come back tomorrow, to say I was flawed and devasted was an understatement, though I stood my ground and said "No, relayed what we had been through in the past 2 days, and wasn't leaving until someone saw my son." 11.30pm, finally get in to see a Registrar who again re-confirms what we have already been told, and that he will need to be sedated, have the foreign body removed and then check the extent of the damage. I finally thought Haleluyah! After a few phone calls I was told that ENT surgery would be Thursday, go to admissions and the procedure will take place on Thursday. I sat there and cried. I could not believe that the medical system would leave a 20 month old boy left untreated for 4 days with a foreign body in his ear, still bleeding and a likely perforation, who was obviously in pain and constantly told each day not to eat, drink or have pain relief until he was seen too, explain this to a 20 month old. It is disgusting to day the least, and in a huge hospital like the JH, there is not one professional there who could deal with this complication immediately, but 4 days later. After booking him into admissions, we never got home until 2.30pm. Absolutely disgusting. Cooper and I arrived at the hospital at 7am, booked into admissions, sent to the Childrens ward, the anaesthesis came round at 9am to do the routine check with the anaesthetic, again no food, no drinks, no pain relief, at 9.30am finally we get some pain relief and Coop quietens down a little. 11.30am we are called to theatre and what a traumatic experience that is. We are all prepped up in our gowns and blue caps, not that the caps lasted long on Coops head, all of 1 second each time it was put back on. He was then wrapped in a sheet, I held onto him while they placed a gas mask over his face. He wriggled, bucked and screamed. My heart ached. He finally went limp like a rag doll and gasping, which I was told was normal. Felt like you had just put an animal down, that stage where their body just lets go. Terrible feeling. I was then sent to the waiting area. 30 minutes passed and it was all over, a cotton tip lodges in the base of his ear canal, 4-5 deep gouges where he had a few attempts of stabbing his ear with the cotton bud, and was told that luckily the cooton tip did come off and get lodged, as that was the main reason why the cotton stick didn't perforate through his membrane, as the cotton tip was in the way cushioning the pokes. So no perforated ear drums and a four day wait, anxiety, stress and everything else all took 30 minutes to fix. Cooper then came out of anaesthetic kicking, screaming and very distressed. He continued to scream for 45 minutes where nothing I did would console him, in the end they let us go back to the ward. It wasn't until he had a vegemite sandwich in front of him, that he stopped screaming. He eventually had 2 sandwiches and two apple juices and started to walk and obvioulsy was feeling alot better. We got home at 2.30pm. My poor Trav had been dragged along to the hospital with me on the Monday and Tuesday and my gorgeous next door neighbour and saviour kindly offered to look after him all day Thursday. Thank god for her. So now our ordeal is over with Cooper, thank the lord, and I have so many well wishes from my close friends Jane, Shell and Mel, not to mention my gorgeous friends (Sandy, Jane, Jaimee and Annette R) for their constant emails and phone calls, and the wonderful heartfelt posts from all the girls from TSE! You are all worth your weight in gold and thankyou so much for thinking of us and getting me through this with your kindness. I truly love you all! And on top of all this my parents are still away and I miss them so much, especially this week when I needed them for a shoulder to cry on or the the love and support they give to me and they are unaware that all this has gone on. Miss you mum and dad!
All seemed well, Sunday night Coop decides to take to his ear with a cotton bud, and by the time I realised what he had done, there was blood running out of his ear and down his cheek, I was horrified. I rang Maitland hospital to ask them what do I need to do to help stop the bleeding before I brought him up, and they said not to even bother as there was nothing that they could do for him, just give him some panadol and take him to your local GP in the morning, so of course 9.30am got into to see the local GP who was horrified that Maitland wouldn't even see him and told me to go straight to the John Hunter's emergency as it looked like a part of the cotton tip was still lodged in his ear, and he could not determine the extent of his damage, whether he had a perforated ear drum or not. So off we trot to the John Hunter, upon arrival and telling our story, we are told do not give him anything to eat or drink until he is seen too incase he is sent off somewhere else. We are not even seen to until 2.30pm, where again we are re-confirmed that yes there is damage done to his ear, do not know extent as there is something lodged at the base, not equiped to do anything here, you will need to go to ENT (Ear, Nose & Throat) for a specialist to see him. After a lengthy delay of 1 hour we are told EBT can't see us until Wednesday, but you need to go around to ENT now and make an appointment. In all this time poor Coop has had no food, drink or pain relief. We venture to ENT and the lady makes an appointment for 9.30am Tuesday morning. We get home from JH at 5.30pm. A restless night, and again no breakfast, drinks or pain relief for Coop, get to JH at 9.30am only to be told receptionist had made a mistake and there is no ENT clinic on today, can you come back tomorrow, to say I was flawed and devasted was an understatement, though I stood my ground and said "No, relayed what we had been through in the past 2 days, and wasn't leaving until someone saw my son." 11.30pm, finally get in to see a Registrar who again re-confirms what we have already been told, and that he will need to be sedated, have the foreign body removed and then check the extent of the damage. I finally thought Haleluyah! After a few phone calls I was told that ENT surgery would be Thursday, go to admissions and the procedure will take place on Thursday. I sat there and cried. I could not believe that the medical system would leave a 20 month old boy left untreated for 4 days with a foreign body in his ear, still bleeding and a likely perforation, who was obviously in pain and constantly told each day not to eat, drink or have pain relief until he was seen too, explain this to a 20 month old. It is disgusting to day the least, and in a huge hospital like the JH, there is not one professional there who could deal with this complication immediately, but 4 days later. After booking him into admissions, we never got home until 2.30pm. Absolutely disgusting. Cooper and I arrived at the hospital at 7am, booked into admissions, sent to the Childrens ward, the anaesthesis came round at 9am to do the routine check with the anaesthetic, again no food, no drinks, no pain relief, at 9.30am finally we get some pain relief and Coop quietens down a little. 11.30am we are called to theatre and what a traumatic experience that is. We are all prepped up in our gowns and blue caps, not that the caps lasted long on Coops head, all of 1 second each time it was put back on. He was then wrapped in a sheet, I held onto him while they placed a gas mask over his face. He wriggled, bucked and screamed. My heart ached. He finally went limp like a rag doll and gasping, which I was told was normal. Felt like you had just put an animal down, that stage where their body just lets go. Terrible feeling. I was then sent to the waiting area. 30 minutes passed and it was all over, a cotton tip lodges in the base of his ear canal, 4-5 deep gouges where he had a few attempts of stabbing his ear with the cotton bud, and was told that luckily the cooton tip did come off and get lodged, as that was the main reason why the cotton stick didn't perforate through his membrane, as the cotton tip was in the way cushioning the pokes. So no perforated ear drums and a four day wait, anxiety, stress and everything else all took 30 minutes to fix. Cooper then came out of anaesthetic kicking, screaming and very distressed. He continued to scream for 45 minutes where nothing I did would console him, in the end they let us go back to the ward. It wasn't until he had a vegemite sandwich in front of him, that he stopped screaming. He eventually had 2 sandwiches and two apple juices and started to walk and obvioulsy was feeling alot better. We got home at 2.30pm. My poor Trav had been dragged along to the hospital with me on the Monday and Tuesday and my gorgeous next door neighbour and saviour kindly offered to look after him all day Thursday. Thank god for her. So now our ordeal is over with Cooper, thank the lord, and I have so many well wishes from my close friends Jane, Shell and Mel, not to mention my gorgeous friends (Sandy, Jane, Jaimee and Annette R) for their constant emails and phone calls, and the wonderful heartfelt posts from all the girls from TSE! You are all worth your weight in gold and thankyou so much for thinking of us and getting me through this with your kindness. I truly love you all! And on top of all this my parents are still away and I miss them so much, especially this week when I needed them for a shoulder to cry on or the the love and support they give to me and they are unaware that all this has gone on. Miss you mum and dad!
3 comments:
So glad all is well now.
I am so relieved to hear that Cooper is OK, hopefully you never have to go back to that hospital again!
It totally sucks when a child gets sick or hurt... I have 5 of em and have my share of stories!! I can relate.. and I'm here for you!
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