It was admission day. I woke up early and lay in bed listening to the girls snore, and tried to out my positive face on. My family were arriving today, and I needed to make sure I was looking happy and ready to go. Stupid, because I know that no one expects me to be excited that my daughter is about to get cut up!
While we were having breakfast my phone rang. For a few seconds I let myself hope that the hospital was calling to tell us to go home, there's no bed for her, but they just wanted to let us know that Ellie's bed wouldn't be ready until 4pm. The admissions officer said to come over 3pm, because doctor Kimble needed to see us before 4pm. So we had a whole day to fill in.
We took Sophie to the museum to see the dinosaur bones and the penguins, and then went back to Ronald McDonald house to have lunch on the roof top. Bec, ash, and Nan arrived while we were getting lunch, and we all sat around in the sunshine until it was time for Drew and I to take Ellie to the hospital. Sophie went back to the hotel with Bec so she wouldn't have to sit around the hospital all afternoon.
Admission was very straight forward, and we were soon up on the paediatric ward again. I was hoping we would be in a real room, but it wasn't to be. We were back in the nursery, where there's crying babies and no curtains for privacy. But at least it's right across the hall from the coffee!
Our nurse, Rosie, said she would go and call doctor Kimble, and then she left. I didn't see her again for an hour and a half. In that time, Drew got bored and went for a walk, and one of the anaesthetic team came to see Ellie. He listened to Ellie's chest and went through her history. He was happy with how her chest sounded this time, but needed to check with Mimi, the head paediatric anaesthetist and the lady we had last time. He asked Rosie if plastics had been called and she said no, she hadn't done it yet. I looked at the clock and it was 4.45pm. I knew that we were told to be there before 4pm for a reason, and we weren't going to see doctor Kimble today.
I was pretty annoyed right then. We had come down early just so that Ellie could be admitted today for "further tests" as per doctor Kimble's instructions last time. I also wanted to talk to him about getting Ellie's grommets removed, and I was unhappy that we would miss out on seeing the people we really needed to see, just because Rosie had forgotten to do her job. I know nurses are busy. But let's face it, a phone call or a page takes 2 minutes max. And Ellie is a patient, just as important as all the rest.
THe nursing unit manager tried to calm me, and offered to get the surgical registrar in to look over Ellie instead. They came very quickly, followed by the anesthetic registrar from before. The general consensus was that Ellie was is great health right now, and they didn't think a chest X-ray was a good idea. I agreed, because she has had so many already and I don't want to over-radiate her too soon in life. I asked the surgical registrar about the grommets, and she said she would bring it up with doctor Kimble.
The anaesthetist wanted to put an IV line in Ellie ready for the next day, but when he looked and couldn't find a vein he changed his mind pretty quickly! And with that, there was really no reason why Ellie should spend the night in the hospital, so he suggested we go back to Ronald McDonald house for the night, and just come back early in the morning. I wasn't going to argue against sleeping in a real bed for one more night!
Back at the house we got the girls some dinner and settled them in to bed for the night. Drew and I both turned in early too. We had to be back at the hospital by 7am, and my parents wanted to see Ellie before that, so we were all planning to meet in Bec's hotel room at 6am.
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