Tessa is home!

Tessa is home! Her doctor agreed that she was doing very well, surprisingly well, and since we seemed to have a reasonable grasp on instructions such as “make sure she drinks a lot”, “give her ‘painstop’* every 6 hours” and “don’t take her swimming in a public pool” she was allowed to go home. 

We’re exhasted, we’re happy, we’re no longer listening to random screaming and medivac helicopters arriving. If you want to see a few snaps (and why wouldn’t you want to see photos shot entirely in my daughter’s hospital room?) you can head on over to flickr.

Thanks to all our friends who dropped food off or lent us entertainment equipment and most of all thanks to Granny Anne for looking after Rose this week.

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*NOTE: I’m not making the name of this medication up.

A quick update

It’s been a long, long day, but I wanted to update you all on the fact that the surgery is over, and that Tess is doing really well.

It almost didn’t happen – the anesthetist was concerned about her respiratory infection. I told him that she’d had a snotty nose and a cough since she started day care 10  months ago. He looked suprised. He suggested we put the surgery off for a few months. I started crying, saying that we don’t have any family in Sydney to help us and that my mother-in-law had flown from NZ and couldn’t re-schedule and that if there was any way we could go ahead with the surgery today I’d be grateful. I don’t think my water works ultimately made up his mind, and let me assure you all that I wasn’t trying to play a sympathy card, my tears were genuine and real. As Chris and my friend Tara (a nurse) said later on, they wouldn’t have gone ahead if they’d had significant doubts.

Anyhow, the surgery happened. When I left the hospital Tess was sleeping peacefully. (Chris is doing the first night, I’ll take over tomorrow). The next few days are going to be tough for little Tess, but hopefully not as tough as today was.

Thanks

Thanks everyone for your phone calls and emails. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as I can how things go.

Fortunately Tess slept well overnight. We were told that she had to fast after 7am (surgery at 3.30). Given that she’s not a big eater of breakfast we bribed her with favourite foods of pasta, chocolate covered cookies, and milk.

On the nature of germs

For the last few days I’ve had the most frightful cold. Razor sharp throat, hacking consumptive cough, chills and rivers of snot.

This evening I told Rose that I couldn’t kiss her good night because of my germs. She looked at me quizzically, but said nothing. 

Later on she happened to bonk her head against her new hardwood bedhead, and I kissed the top of her noggin.

“Have the germs gone away?”

“No, they’re still there, it’s just that kissing your head is okay.”

“But you can’t kiss my face?”

“No. My mouth has the germs. If I kissed your face you could wipe it into your mouth and make you sick.”

“How would it go into my mouth?”

By this point I was half-proud of her comprehensive line of inquiry and half-wondering if I was ever going to escape.

“It just might happen, okay? Your cheek is near your mouth and….” 

“Oh, I see. Can you kiss my knee?”

I started speculating in my head if Rose going to be a scientist or a lawyer.

“Yes, because you’re wearing pajamas and they’re good at stopping germs.”

What did I just say? I hope no-one’s taping this.

“Okay Mummy, that’s all. Goodnight.”

Did you just fire me?