Monday, October 26, 2009

Operation: Take Two!


I was excited when I went home last Friday night. My husband and I wanted to surprise our kids for we had just bought an 8-ft Christmas tree!



When we reached home, Kaira was so excited to put up the tree. However, Keziah welcomed us with the wound on her sole. She told me in details the story of how she got the more-than-a- centimeter wound.



According to her, she was playing with her Ate Kei outside the gate that Friday morning. They were chasing each other when she stopped running and told her Ate that she's giving up because she is full. Probably they have just eaten breakfast then. She told me she felt something under her sole. When she walked towards the bench to check what’s under it, she saw blood on her right slippers. Her Ate Kei called up their Ate Arcie and they helped Keziah go back to the house. Her Ate Arcie cleaned the wound and put Betadine solution on it. As what Keziah told me, she still managed to go to school with her shoes on that afternoon. She told me that there was no pain with her shoes on. She seems to be fine that Friday night but since she looked so sleepy, I sent her to bed and asked Kaira to help me spread the leaves of the Christmas tree.



On Saturday morning Keziah woke me up, crying and almost crawling on the floor . She was suffering from severe pain. I decided to bring her to the emergency room. Luckily, her dad went half day in the office. But this time, he needs to be absent the whole day for he must join us to the hospital. I cannot manage to carry Keziah by myself. She can't walk at all.



Upon having the agreement with Lem, I helped Keziah took a bath. I suddenly felt that her body temperature started to rise. After rinsing her, I took a bath. When I came back to the room to dress up, Keziah was lying on the bed. She was complaining that her upper right leg was in pain- - - lymph nodes! I knew it! I can see that she really can’t bear the pain anymore so we proceeded to the hospital afterwards.

When we reached the Perpertual Help Las Pinas emergency room, many doctors---residents, pediatricians, surgeons, assistants---nurses, and even medical students checked Keziah's condition. People kept on coming from time to time asking the same questions over and over again---what happened, when that happened, what medications I gave, how did she feel, did she have fever--- and I kept on declaring the same story everytime a new person asked about it. I think more than 15 people examined her!



After more than an hour of staying in the ER, the nurse who attended to her most of the time (because it seemed that more than 1 nurse attended to her) mentioned that Keziah needs to be admitted to the hospital. The doctors said that an intravenous antibiotic was needed to fight the infection.



We stayed for more than half day in the ER. We're still on queue for the private room when our 'real' Pediatrician, Dr. Viola, came. He examined Keziah's wound and told me that he needs to have a surgeon check the wound further. A foot x-ray may be required to check if foreign bodies were left inside but a better way to check presence of a foreign body is through exploring the wound with forceps. I asked him if the procedure will be done with anaesthesia. He told me it depends on what the surgeon will say. He explained that the sole has higher pain tolerance so an anaesthesia may not be needed but it will depend on the evaluation of the surgeon. After the detailed explanation, Dr Viola left and we were finally accommodated in the private room at half past 5pm. A foot x-ray was done on that Saturday night.



On Sunday morning, it was only Kaira and me looking after Keziah. I woke up early to take a bath, fed the two kids, freshen up Keziah with a wet towel, changed her clothes, guided Kaira while she took a bath, then left for a while to buy my breakfast and buy other necessary things. When I came back, the 2 kids told me that a doctor came---one who was old and had white hair. I kept on thinking who it was. They told me it was not Dr. Viola. Later on, the nurse-on-duty came and told me that the surgeon already scheduled Keziah in the operating room on Monday at 8am. Just then, I realized that the doctor who came while I was out was Dr. Fernandez, the surgeon. Unfortunately, I was not able to talk to him.



After sometime, Dr. Viola paid a visit again. He told me that the wound exploration procedure will be done on Monday but he needs to have Keziah’s lungs x-rayed, as a prerequisite for the general anaesthesia. That same afternoon, Keziah was fetched by a nurse with wheel chair to bring her to the radiology room for the chest x-ray. Later on, an anaesthesiologist came to visit Keziah in her room. She explained to me the prodecure and what we need to do prior to the surgery, particularly the fasting. I was already familiar with the procedure as this is Keziah’s second time for a general anaesthesia.



I woke up early today, Monday morning. As early as 6 am, I was already taking a bath as Keziah will be fetched by 7am. I took a quick breakfast of banana and bread, changed Keziah’s clothes and waited for the nurse to lead us going to the Operating Room.



I was with Keziah up to the OR, until she felt asleep. I was in full OR attire, felt like I am a nurse-on-duty! :) However, with matching headcap, I felt I was in gateway plant doing Dressings production trials! Hehe!



As mentioned earlier, this was the second time for Keziah’s general anaesthesia. The first time was 3 years ago when she had an eye operation. I cried a lot then, as I saw my 3-year-old girl suddenly became unconscious on my shoulders. This first time was more traumatic for me. She was so afraid that time that I needed to carry her on my shoulders while anaesthesia flowed to her dextrose. I felt her body became heavy as she became unconscious and I feel like laying a dead person on the bed. And imagine, it was my child! :)



This time, I was already prepared and never dropped a single tear! J The second time made me become ‘used to it’! Besides, Keziah became unconscious on the bed, not on my shoulders, and I only observed her slowly closing her eyes until she became unconscious. The anaesthesiologist asked me to leave when Keziah was totally unconscious.



I waited for Keziah in the companions’ lounge of the operating room. I have no watch but I looked at my mobile phone which is 45 minutes advance. It was 9:18 am. I was expecting that the procedure will take around and hour but after roughly 15 minutes, one of the resident doctors told me that it was done! I was so surprised how fast the minor surgery was! A few minutes later the surgeon came to the lounge and told me that he found a 0.2cm black foreign matter inside the wound. It was a good decision that the procedure was done because if not, the foreign body will stay inside the flesh, the infection will flourish and inflammation will not subside. The surgeon left and I waited for the crews to call me up and look after Keziah in the recovery room.


I stayed for long hours beside her, inside the recovery room. While waiting for her to wake up, I sent SMS to officemates---talking about work and issues at work. I called up the PeopleLink to inquire about my questionable Philhealth benefit. I sent SMS to Lem to request for Philhealth documents from his employer and I did this blog with my mobile phone! While blogging. I waited for almost 2 hours when the nurse told me to try to wake her up so that we could proceed to our room. As I looked at my child’s closed eyes, I tried talking to her, asking her if she still feels sleep. Slowly, she opened her eyes and tried to observe everything around her. She seemed to be so curious and was wondering where she was. Thank God she was perfectly ok! After consciously resting for a few minutes, we were sent back to our room.



Right now, Keziah is recovering, watching her favorite cartoon programs but still looks groggy with ther anaesthesia she received. She actually is waiting for Mommy E. to come, whom she persuaded to come. My mom told me that she cannot pay a visit because she needs to attend to things in the office but when she talked to Keziah, she said she’s coming!



Thank God all is well now. Keziah had her second operation but everything is doing ok. Tomorrow, the surgeon will re-dress her wound and use a washable one. At last, we’ll be discharged by tomorrow!



My dear family and friends, thanks for all the prayers!




-maron-
26october2009
15:26 hrs

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