Cyst Removal

This is Doug's back just hours after having an emergency surgical procedure to remove a sebaceous cyst from his back. For years he has had a cyst growing on his back, right in the middle along his spinal line. It's been checked regularly by our GP who assured him it was fine and that it didn't need to be removed or have anything done. It had even grown to about an inch long and sticking quite far out from his back. They are something that just happens for some people. Unless it got infected...

Which of course it did. It went from being a lump that didn't bother him to swollen and infected within a matter of days and our GP referred us to a specialist. Upon calling I found out the waiting list without private health was around a year, going private without insurance would cost us $180 for the initial consult, then probably $2-4k for the surgery. As "luck" would have it, he ended up in the emergency 2 days later when it got to bad to bear, which resulted in it being removed the next day after spending the night in the hospital on IV antibiotics. I had NO idea how huge the surgical procedure would be, but they ended up having to put him to sleep, then slicing a piece out, removing the entire lump, including the casing and roots kind of thing around it that were holding into his back. It left a gaping hole, 2 cms deep and about 3.5cm long. They weren't able to stitch it closed as it had developed an abscess with the infection, meaning it has to be packed with surgical swabbing every day for the first week, then every second day afterwards for a few weeks. Wowsers. Literally has to heal from the inside, out.

I would like to say here, this was all at NO COST to our family. For the surgery, the overnight stay, the medication and the follow up home visits. I feel blessed every single day to be an Australian and to have the amaaaazing health care we do. Thank goodness it went through emergency and we didn't have to wait! 

when hide and seek goes wrong

this is what happens when a game of hide and seek goes wrong. you end up in the local emergency department for the long haul, with scheduled surgery for the following day. gah.

it allllll started at the wake after baby willows funeral yesterday. joseph and some of mel and aitu's girls and their cousins were playing a game of hide or something like that (let's be honest, we don't really know) when we were about to leave to go home. in fact, we had even made it to the car and then couldn't find him. maddie went back in to look and then came outside yelling that joseph had hurt himself and i needed to come back in.

oh my gosh. hurt himself he had, his left middle finger had been crushed in a door and had a cut down one side by the nail and the nail had been completely ripped out of the bed and was hanging off the edge like 5mm above where it should have been and there was so. much. blood. it was horrendous. i tried to run it under some water to get a better look but that only made him scream more (not at all surprising, it was a mess!) making it very quickly apparent that this was needing a hospital run and definitely not something we could help with. he was in sooooo much pain and wailed the entire way there. i felt so helpless and just did my best to get him there as fast as we could.

the hospital staff were absolutely incredible. he was seen within minutes and given a pain block needle straight into his finger, which stopped all of the feeling. i really felt for him though as he has quite bad anxiety and the needle didn't help with that. he was screaming and trying to push everyone away, but was so happy when it took hold and he was pain free. his face was hilarious, he held his hand up in the air and was looking at it with amazement like he couldn't believe it. we had x-rays and confirmed that the tip of his finger was broken. he kept saying to me over and over why did this happen to me?! i just did my best as a mum, reminding him he was very lucky to keep is finger - as it could have ended differently and very badly, with him not having a finger!

it was so hard for me as a mum though to watch him. i was so emotional from being at a funeral already and kept crying while we waited and when he got upset. and he was so so upset and couldn't calm down, especially when they needed to give him a second block needle to ensure that the first one wouldn't wear off first. i am certain they heard him through the entire department! the dr actually spoke to me and suggested that i may need to have him assessed formally for anxiety and possible autism. they said his reactions put across that it's a possibility. it was no surprise to me as we have always thought it was a possibility but we have never had him diagnosed as his issues don't actually affect his day to life. he's smart, bright, has a lot of friends (although he does like his own company!) but just needs a little help regulating his emotions sometimes. we will think and pray on it and see what we decide to do. but even knowing someone else can see it is comforting. i always wondered if i was "that" mum that was diagnosing her kid. 

as you can see he was far from impressed, especially when he ended up vomiting all over himself  when he needed to go to the bathroom, right before they said we could go home. i was not in any way surprised, he had had so much going on, along with the pain and the pain meds... it was horrendous! the sweet nurse that was looking after us very quickly cleaned him up and gave him two of their childrens gowns, one back to front and one the right way around to ensure maximum coverage haha. just to make matters worse though, we finally made it home and got him in the shower to wash the day away and his hand started bleeding through the bandages again... another trip back to emergency to get it under control and then home again, ready to report to the hospital in the morning for his surgery.

the hospital staff were so wonderful. we got checked in and given a bed in the childrens ward where we spoke to the doctor and completed all the paperwork prior to being prepped for surgery. we did get a bit of a giggle out of it too, when the nurse accidentally wrote removal of left middle finger and left off the word nail. we definitely want to keep the finger! 

the surgeon came and spoke to us beforehand too (i still can't get over the fact a he has had plastic surgery on his finger!!) saying that they would be removing the nail and checking underneath to ensure there was no more damage they couldn't see, then repairing the nail bed and reattaching the nail. it wasn't a long surgery but it feels like forever when it's your child!

i must admit too, it was much nicer having a more grown up child this time around than our experience with having his teeth removed! he calmly lay in the bed, playing the switch while i read a book, occasionally talking to me or asking a question. even though he had to fast too, not once did he complain about being hungry either, considering how focused he normally is on food!

everything went perfectly according to plan and we were able to go home a few hours later after he had been checked by the nurse again.

i am so so proud of him. he coped so well with everything he had thrown at him and although grumpy came out of it no problems at all.

so now i just have to put up with that grumpy face and his giant record breaking rude finger for the nect few weeks. he's been referred to a place in joondalup for continued care, so fingers crossed there are no further issues and it heals well. and most of all, that it's our last trip to emergency for a while. although with my two boys - it's unlikely!

 

emergency dental

being a parent is hard at the best of times... but sometimes you get an itty bitty taste of what it is like for those who live with ill children and constant hospital visits... mine was yesterday. in february (while madeline and i were in america and joseph was staying with my parents) joseph had a fall and landed on his mouth. he received a trauma to his two front teeth and mum and dad took him to the local hospital, who in turn sent him to princess margaret hospital in perth. it was pretty serious and they had originally had thought they would have to remove them then, but everything was looking good. at two follow up appointments all was still well, but the dentist showed me what to look for, as there was still a risk of infection.

thursday afternoon, joseph got a carrot from the fridge and bit it on the side, instead of with his front teeth. alarm bells rang, i checked his gums... and found an abscess above one of his front teeth, with a second fast developing. a quick call to the dentist confirmed what we already feared, they would have to come out via emergency dental surgery - and off to the hospital emergency department we went. the drs checked him out, the hospital dentist was called - and we were asked to come back the following morning with a referral to present to dental at 8am, to ensure the teeth were removed asap. on top of this, he would have to be fasting, with no idea of when it could be done!

the next morning arrives, his infection had already doubled in size (overnight!!!!) and off we raced to pmh. because he was not in a life threatening situation, we had to wait until all scheduled appointments had been seen, so it was past 1pm before we even saw the dentist. they said it was not as serious as it was made out to be, but that they certainly needed to be removed... and normally he would have been added to a waiting list (with a current wait time of a month!) but as he was already there, had already been fasting for 18 hours and was quite distressed, they would tack him onto the end of the scheduled surgeries for the day and we would just have to wait. in all honesty, i would have happily waited until midnight, without a complaint, as i was just so happy they were going to do it that day and not make him wait. i actually can't even imagine how bad the infection would have been in a month if it had spread that much overnight!

we were moved up to the ward, where we sat with all the other children awaiting surgery and waited and waited and waited as each of them went through... eventually as it hit after hours, they closed down all the theatres except for one, and the children started to go through one by one, instead of a few at a once. finally there were two of us... then just joseph, the final (because he was added!) surgery for the day. he was beyond done by then, even though he had truly been amazing, it was 7pm, we'd been fasting for more than 24 hours (with just 3 cups of apple juice for him that entire time!)... and the surgeon arrived. 7:15, we went into surgery and i held my brave little boy as they put him to sleep and then wheeled him in. 10 minutes later, the dr came out to tell me it was all done (such a simple procedure that the paperwork takes longer than actually pulling the teeth!) all had gone well, his teeth were out, the infection flushed and he was in recovery. 

another 15 minutes later i was called through, he was awake and sitting groggily on the lap of one of the nurses, but quickly held his arms up for me. he was given a icy pole, which he eagerly ate, plus some more juice... and then we were wheeled back to the ward. after a few more checks, blood pressure, walking unassisted and having the port in his hand removed, it was finally time for us to go home (around 8:30pm). 

he was asleep before we even made it home and the next morning woke up like nothing had ever happened! came barreling into our room singing away and got his toys out and proceeded to play with them and then ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. it never, ever ceases to amaze me how quickly children bounce back!

i feel so beyond lucky living in this amazing country... where we walked into a hospital, were seen and attended to that day, and walked out without a bill. we are blessed beyond measure and i know that we have someone watching over us! ♥