The Leper Colony

What a week! Callaghan Cottage has become a bit of a leper colony.

Beware...enter healthy and leave falling apart!

No sooner was I home from hospital for a few days then I was back again on Wednesday...but this time for Harry who had his tonsils and adenoids out.

It was a long day starting with a 7am admission. He tried so hard to be brave while we were waiting to go into theatre. Great big eyes trying to take everything in and a tiny voice that eventually said "Mummy, I don't feel brave anymore". Even still, he was a little champion and was really calm when they put the mask over his face and put him to sleep. The staff were great but I did have to reassure them that I was fine and wasn't about to fall into a blubbering heap. I don't know why I handle these events so calmly, I just do. I think they were anxious about me because its so visible that I'm a cancer patient.

My big boy may have been calm going into surgery but coming out of the anaesthetic he was anything but. In hindsight I should have insisted on being there when he woke up instead of letting them get me when they were ready. Apparently he was delirious, flailing and screeching like a banshee for sometime and had to be sedated before they finally brought me in. Even then he was crying, drooling and randomly lashing out. I had to get on the bed and cuddle him in order to calm him down. Poor kid, he must have felt so awful. It took just over an hour before he finally settled down enough to fall asleep. He was much more subdued throughout the rest of the day and we spent the afternoon cuddling on the bed and watching ABC for Kids. Shannon came to trade places with me at 5pm...by which time I was absolutely knackered!

While I was busy with Harry...my gorgeous little cousin was looking after the Jackman.

 

Suzie flew down from Brisbane on Tuesday night and has been a godsend for the last crazy couple of days. The boys loved her...although Jack was prone to giving her little 'evils' at odd occasions...(nothing more hilarious than a toddler giving baby evils from under tiny blonde eyebrows!). Thursday was a bit of a manic day, I dropped Suze & Jack at Questacon for the morning while I went to Oncology to discuss my next treatment with my doctor and give a headscarf to one of the women I'd shared a room with on the ward. While I was there I bumped into my social worker, Michelle, who completely spoilt me with this gorgeous little box filled with Koko Black chocolates.

 

Note that there are only two left in the photo....they were so completely divine that they didn't last long.

Michelle = total gem. She has done so much for us and is so good to chat to!

By lunchtime I'd finished with oncology and Harry had been discharged. The afternoon was pretty miserable. Jack woke up from his nap utterly inconsolable with a temp of 38 degrees. He'd been out of sorts for the past week but we'd put it down to teething. After a quick trip to the GP it turned out that our littlest man had tonsillitis. How ironic! So both he and Harry spent the afternoon grizzling in tandem. Joy!

My surgeon called about 4pm to tell me that the only time that he could do my port surgery was first thing in the morning which kind of threw me. It put me in a bit of a dilemma...am ten days post chemo which is when my white cell count takes a dive. My oncologist told me not to have surgery for the next week while my white cells were low...which left just one day to get it done...the day before my next chemo. My surgeon was doing me a favour by squeezing me in as an 'emergency surgery' to get around the system and I felt pressured to just go ahead and do it, so I said I would. I even raced back to the hospital and had bloods taken to check the white cell count. But last night I changed my mind. The boys were tag teaming, waking at fifteen to twenty minute intervals for the ENTIRE night. Shannon crashed very early leaving me to deal with them and by 2am I was absolutely shattered and very stressed. I managed a couple of hours of broken sleep on the couch and was in no state of mind to deal with a general anaesthetic and surgery today. I called and told the hospital that I'd woken with a throat infection, which isn't a fib, I think I've scored Jack's tonsillitis. So that is that...I've missed out on my port. I'll just live with my picc line until chemo is over.

Poor Suze...she flew home this morning. It wasn't the most pleasant trip...grizzly kids and crazy, frazzled parents with bugger all chance to actually check out Canberra...but she endured it with good humour and it was so nice to spend a bit of time with her.

 

My great big fabulous family. I am so grateful for the support they constantly give us, even when we're disgustingly ill and all over the place. I love them to bits!!!

 

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