I am well aware there are kids out there that aren’t as “lucky” as Oscar. We have kids in the rooms around us that are so much sicker than him. The smiles on the other kids faces though are so nice to see, these long hospital stays are there norm but the colourful pictures on the walls and teddies and balloons brighten up their spaces.
For those that don’t know, Oscar was born with a double blockage in his ureter - the tube that carries the urine from his kidney to his bladder. He had a ureterostomy during his first year which meant his kidney would drain directly into his nappy through his tummy. Before that though he had infection after infection after infection.On a morning when we’d had a very unsettled night the night before, I was almost certain I would find blood in his nappy. A quick phone call and we’d be packing a bag and heading off to emergency. For some reason, when Oscar gets an infection, he grows a pretty funky rare bug.
He is prone to getting UTI’s but as he has had the kidney issues since he was growing in my belly, his surgeon mentioned that Oscar wouldn’t know the difference - he wouldn’t be able to tell me if it it was hurting as it was his norm. He wouldn’t know until it had found its way back to his kidney and he was starting to get the bad aches in his belly.
I have a pack of urine test strips at home and any sign of a belly ache for Oscar, we need to check it. This is what we did Sunday morning when he woke up complaining of a sore tummy. I packed a bag (we always have to anticipate admission and a stay each time) and we headed off to Monash Children’s.
Oscar’s surgeon (Dr Chris Kimber - who is amazing!) works out of Monash and has always told us to head in there instead of Casey so that he is more accessible if need be. We arrived into emergency and the Dr hadn’t even taken any tests yet but said she would be admitting him due to his history.
The nurses covered his little arms and hands in Emla cream for the needles to come. In the past, I have had to hold him down during the cannula and blood tests and hide my own tears from him but I was hoping that given he is now 8, I thought he would be old enough to lie there and I could just distract him with some “mum talk” - sure enough, all he did was mutter out a little “ouch” and it was done. Tests came back with a positive UTI and we were on the short wait for a bed on the ward.
Given the current Corona issues, the hospital is sooooooo quiet so everything moved pretty quick. Soon enough we were being wheeled from the original Monash Emergency, through the old dark hallways and once we reached the new section of the Monash Childrens, it was bright white with cute kiddie patterns on the walls.
Once we were in the ward, Oscar was quick to turn the TV on and see what games he could play or movies he could watch. Just as the excitement of a new comfy bed and awesome technology to keep him busy had taken over, he was coming back down with pains and fevers. The thing about Oscar which amazes me is he does not complain - not once. He looks at me with those big blue puppy dog eyes and just says “I need medicine”. We buzz the nurse and she does a temp check to tell us he was close to 39 - Panadol it is which he cannot stand the taste of. It’s not the strawberry one we have at home - so each time he takes it with an apple juice chaser.
2 days of fevers up and down and pains in the belly and the Dr’s come in to tell us it’s the same nasty bug that he had 3 years ago, and they know which course they want to take. We are being sent home with 6 bottles of antibiotics and once recovered off to see his surgeon to see what we can do to try and prevent this from occurring again.
The hospital days are long and the nights are longer, but it has been so nice spending some one on one time with Oscar. Everyone always says how amazing their own kids are, but this boy really is. He is funny, so funny, witty and so clever. He says the most random funny things at times and he just makes me laugh. It makes me realise I need to spend more one on one time with all of the kids at times. This hospital trip also taught me that just like my horrendous chalk writing skills at home, I can now add “unable to open bloody hospital juice without spilling it” to my growing list of can’t do’s.
So, we are packed up and ready to go just waiting on the flu shot - I’m almost certain the wonderful Drs and Nurses won’t see this, but if they do, we both want to thank them for being so amazing from the moment we arrived until the moment we left. The nurses would always make jokes with Oscar and in his quiet shy voice he would giggle with them. We don’t like being in hospital like most people, but when it’s as beautiful as this one and we get taken care of like we have, we are so thankful.
(Below has some iPhone photos mixed it)
