This is a risk of tonsillectomies, so we knew it was a possibility, but we definitely didn't expect it. At the time, I was away from home picking up some tetracaine lollipops from a compounding pharmacy across town. Scotty called and said Zoe had started bleeding, so we both headed toward the hospital to meet up.
I figured everything would check out just fine, and she'd be monitored for a little while and then sent home. For the first couple of hours it seemed that would be the case. She had a large blood clot come out, and after that the bleeding slowed a lot. But then she started bleeding again and coughing up several blood clots, so she ended up having to go in for surgery.
Everything went well, and she received great care, but it was a big setback in her recovery and tacked on another several days of school missed.
Zoe right after surgery - she did not want to wake up,
and I don't blame her one bit!
I was surprised when I realized that was our first visit to the ER in 2019. Last year we had 7 ER visits. We've made great progress!
While we were at the hospital I had several thoughts:
Thought #1: It's really hard to read in the ER. It seems like it would be a great way to pass the time, especially when you're going on your 7th & 8th hours, but it's so hard to focus. After multiple attempts to read in the ER across many different visits, I've finally concluded that reading is not the ideal hospital activity.
Thought #2: I personally believe that everyone in the ER should have to wear a big sign that says why they are there. HIPPA be darned! I want to know everyone's business, and I will do my finest eavesdropping to learn anything I can about anyone there!
Thought #3: While we were in the waiting room, we were seated facing the entrance, which meant we were the first thing people saw when they walked in. Zoe was covered in blood and holding a purple towel that was covered in blood. Scotty was holding a barf bag full of blood that Zoe would occasionally spit into. I wondered if people found this alarming, or if they just thought, "Eh. It's the ER. This is to be expected."
Thought #4: You know when there's something gross that kind of blows your mind, and you want to show it to other people, but you know you probably shouldn't? That is not the case in the ER. Everyone wants to see your gross stuff, and it's such a thrill! We had to carry around Zoe's blood clots and show them to multiple people - people who actually wanted to see them. It's actually pretty fun and exciting! The staff are like, "Oooo! You have a blood clot? Let's see!" and we're like, "CHECK THIS OUT!" and it's all very satisfying.
Thought #5: Since the medical field doesn't appeal to me at all, I've always wondered how a doctor chooses her specialty. There is no type of doctor I want to be, so I don't know what it's like for someone to be drawn to a particular field of medicine. I have an uncle who is a gastroenterologist. Somehow he decided that he really likes colons. How does a person become drawn to colons? Or brains? Or ears? I sometimes imagine myself in medical school finding my calling. What's that like to discover that you love working with kidneys? Or that you love doing surgery? Or delivering babies? Or treating cancer? What's it like to discover that this - this part of the body, this type of procedure, or this style of practice - is your "thing?"
Thought #6: I hate using the bathrooms at hospitals. I can handle it if the restroom is in my room, but usually when we are in a hospital, we aren't admitted, so we don't have a private bathroom. I don't trust the doors to lock correctly. Many hospital restrooms have two doors, and they are locked by a single button. What if the button doesn't work? How am I supposed to trust a button on the wall to lock two doors? I just can't. And it doesn't help that I once walked in on someone being assisted in the bathroom by the hospital staff in the ER, and I thought why was the door unlocked?
The other reason I hate using the bathroom at the hospital (or any medical facility, really) is that you wait forever for the staff, and I don't want to leave the room and have them come while I'm gone. They say something like, "I'll be back with a dose of acetaminophen for you!" and then you don't see them for two hours. No joke. I can't risk being in the restroom when they show up!
Thought #7: Having surgery in the middle of the night is pretty awesome. The whole operating floor was empty, and the only people there were there for just us. It was the gold star treatment! It might have been a little inconvenient for the people who were on-call, but for us it was amazing. Our ENT came in to do the surgery, which was really great. I didn't expect to have our actual doctor, but it's always really nice to be treated by the one who knows us.
The waiting room on the operating floor at 1:00 a.m.
Zoe's healing has been slow, but she is doing much better. It really is a shockingly long recovery. She missed three weeks of school, and in that time, I completely forgot how to manage our day to day routine. We're still being very careful about what she eats, and she still complains daily that her throat hurts, but she's back in school, and she smiles and plays now! I missed my little firecracker!
As far as three-week blogging breaks go... bad idea. Blogging is one of my outlets, and since I wasn't blogging, I had to turn to online shopping instead. My three-week break ended up costing me thousands of dollars.
Am I exaggerating? Hmmm... maybe I am, maybe I'm not. I'll let my credit card company be the judge of that!
(Not that they have any complaints).
1 comment:
Oh no! I'm so sorry that Zoe had to have surgery again. I had no idea. I hope she's doing much better now.
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