Back to School conjures up all sorts of images...
backpacks
school shopping
new textbooks
school fees
ear operations- oops, that wasn't on your list? Well, it was on mine. S had reconstructive ear hearing bone surgery- how's that for a great way to start off school?! I missed my first day of classes as I was sitting in the Stollery Hospital in Edmonton waiting for him to come out of surgery...and waiting...
and waiting....until THREE HOURS later, I was called into the recovery room. I have to admit there was a bit of sweating going on there during the last hour...I thought the doc had said the surgery was going to be 45 minutes long!!
Doc was right there and explained that the old artificial hearing bone had a bunch of scar tissue and didn't come out cleanly like they had hoped. Instead it came ripping a hole in the ear "floor" (sorry, don't know the real name of it and can't remember what he called it!). So, he had to fix the hole and then make a new hearing bone...this one is titanium! The whole procedure took over two hours! He cautioned that serious vertigo can sometimes result from this procedure.
Poor S. He sat up...and threw up. He lay down...and threw up. He moved his head...and threw up. It took awhile for him to be awake enough to even realize he was feeling terribly dizzy.
The nurses put Gravol into his IV and that seemed to settle his poor stomach but, his face was pasty white and he couldn't hardly talk or think.
He was on the day surgery unit and they were closing. He had been there so long and was still not anywhere close to leaving so they called the doctor. By 7:30 we were admitted overnight to the pediatric wing of the hospital. There was a very cute little baby in the next bed, who was very quiet, but whose machines would beep and buzz on and off all night.
Did you know that hospital cots for parents are just not that comfortable?
At 5am, S woke right up and said, " I'm better now, can we go home?"
If only it was that simple. We had to wait around for hours (no, we never got back to sleep) until an intern came in and said we were okayed to leave. BUT, he forgot to sign S's chart, so we waited some more. Finally, another doctor came in and talked to us and found out what happened and got the signature for us so we could leave. $15 parking paid and we were on our way home.
I dropped S off with his grandma and drove off to school.
Ah yes, school
Wasn't that what I started blogging about?
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