Elliot's Hospital Adventures!

So Elliot was meant to go into hospital for an operation. And, I'm going to sound awful here, but I definitely wanted to write it all up on here, for anyone else who has to think about needles going into their tiny child.

Well, it didn't happen. Not the blog posts, although they evidently didn't appear either. But the operation didn't go ahead. So, instead of a three-parter talking about my inner thoughts and worries about the hospital, I will tell you what it's like to build yourself up to a stressful day and then just have to go home again.

Before we went to the hospital, I was pretty well prepared. I recorded the episodes of Topsy and Tim where they go to hospital. I bought a book on Amazon about hospitals (side note: I always get so ripped off buying books on Amazon, since I paid about £3 for the world's tiniest book. It's so small, it's like it's made of sugar paper. Where does everyone else get the bargains, why do they avoid me!?) Elliot knew he was going to see the doctor, and he was SO CHUFFED when he got to the hospital. And why wouldn't he be, he had toys everywhere, he had a bed to chill out on, he was living the dream. Problem was: he was suffering from world's worst cold. And we'd dosed him up with Nurofen before we left, as he was really quite snotty.

I'm not very well versed in hospital speak, so I didn't know it would be a problem that he had a cough! The face on the nurse that did his first set of observations said it all. We had the world and his consultant coming to our bed, and for a while, it seemed like it would be okay even though he had a cough. This is where I got worked up.

The surgeon came over and said it would all be fine.
The anastheticist (I cannot say that word!) came over and said it probably would be fine...probably. The key point that I can't shake is when he told me where they'd put the needle in Elliot's hands. I was gone then, I was floating on a cloud of anxiety and when he called his consultant over and she told me we'd have to come back another day. And then the cloud started to rain. All over my face as I put Elliot's socks back on and tried to forget about needles and hospital beds and gowns.

And the tale ends with us in Costa, having a coffee and a cake. As per usual.