 |
| Ready for the ambulance transfer |
So for the record, here is what happened.
On Tuesday night, the boys were very excited to try out their new Oculus Rift. Declan felt a bit "motion sick" afterwards, but ate a full dinner. After dinner he said he had a bit of a stomachache, and went to bed quite early.
 |
| Trying to wake up from surgery |
During the night, he woke up to vomit a few times, with Evan's assistance, and each time said that his stomach hurt more. The last time, at 5 in the morning, he said it was a sharp pain, in the right hand side of his abdomen, which hurt when you pressed on it.... So Evan took him into Royal North Shore at 6 that morning. They agreed it was probably appendicitis, and after a bit more testing and a few more doctor investigations (plus some painkillers) he was transferred by ambulance to the Children's hospital at Randwick (as they don't operate on children at RNS).
At Randwick, they prepped him, and he went into the operating theatre about one o'clock. He had keyhole surgery which took about an hour, and then it took him quite a while (as you would expect from Declan) to wake up. And they confirmed that it had been appendicitis, caught just in time so that it hadn't burst.
 |
| Declan tries walking with Evan holding his drips |
Once awake, Declan did his level best to be the model patient, so that he could get out as early as possible, trying to do all the nurses wanted from him, not pressing his morphine button too often, eating and weeing on demand, and getting up to walk as soon as he felt able.
I stayed with him overnight on the Wednesday, and then by lunchtime Thursday it was fairly clear he was going to be able to go home that day, once the surgeon had cleared him.
So he had dinner at home on Thursday night and slept in his own bed.
A few vignettes:
- After the fifth time being asked what he was doing when he started getting sick, he stopped saying "setting up my new oculus rift" and starting saying "playing computer games" as nobody had heard of it.
- He was most scared of having the cannula put into his hand (rather than the surgery or the anaesthetic) as he had heard from Callum how horrible it is (actually it was fine for Declan)
- When he woke up after surgery he didn't want to use too much morphine "because of Sherlock Holmes" - we had to convince him it was fine for pain relief and he wouldn't be addicted.
- He made a point of thanking his surgeons (the one who did it plus the professor who was supervising), which they both seemed very pleased by
- In a sign of Declan's inner city hipster status, the food item that got him eating the hospital food so that he could be rewarded was a pistachio biscotti - not Mcdonalds like his wardmates.
- Callum, in hospital to visit, reprised his cannula experience by fainting because he was thinking too hard about all the needles involved (or possibly because he wanted some more attention? He certainly got a lot... and had to be checked over by emergency to boot)
 |
| Callum recovering from his fainting fit |
