The latest...

Whew what a journey!

I slept in the plane on the way down on Wed morning, then Coralie picked me up from the airport and we went directly to the hospital. We then found out that Coralie was expected to stay overnight with Tim, and she had not been told. So we worked out that she did not have to go back to Paarl to pick up clothing as I still had my suitcases with us. So we did manage. But then of course it was a mission to get Henk around as we had their car.

The one Doctor said it was okay for me to stay overnight too, and to use one of the day room beds. Unfortunately the staff did not convey that message to the night staff and they were not ‘best pleased’ as Sean would say. So the first night, they were okay, using the ward toilet and leaving the light on, which wasn’t too much of a hassle. The second night they switched on the ward lights to go to the loo. Pack of witches!! I worked out why; if things are quiet, they will nap on the beds!

Tim; on Wednesday they said he may get the operation on Thursday. At this stage it was still on that they would remove the whole lump. On Thursday they had 8 burn victims scheduled for surgery, so he was again bumped to Friday. (This whole thing was starting to feel ridiculous). Friday morning he went for his op at 7h30, and was back really quickly. It works out that they only took an aspiration of the lump to see what it was as it is too close to nerve and vein bundles to remove. So Coralie was pretty distraught.

Not to mention that the Dr’s had a misunderstanding between the two of them and there was an amount of tension there too. Words like “I throw my hands up!” and “I wash my hands of it”, were said – with appropriate actions (giggle), we threatened the calmer Dr with us as a work load if they did not come to an agreement as to what was going on. He is pretty busy and the kids love him. Anyway the best surgeon dealt with Tim, so that was all that mattered.

Anyway the lump is either BCG-osis, from having a BCG injection when he did not have the immune system to deal with the infections. Or it is leukaemia. If it is BCG-osis, he will have to go on TB treatment for 4 to six months. If is leukaemia, he still has to be at 9 kgs to commence treatment.

We all caught a cold from the one Sister – thanks for sharing!

So, I slept one night at Coralie’s, and straight to the airport on Saturday morning. Tim had a nightmare night on Friday/Sat night, this kids still aren’t over that. I had a 14-hour night last night, and I am still tired. I am sick of saying that!!

Happy birthday Jorja, 4 years old!!