Monday 25 June 2012

Coming up for air



What a hectic few weeks it has been, oldest boy was in hospital for thirteen days with osteomyelitis.  Bad mother made him walk to school (and sit exams) with an abscess in his leg  but has certainly earned enough mummy points in being his hospital partner for the resulting month to make amends.  We have been on such an NHS journey and have been so thankful for the wonderful treatment we received along the way, from super fast A&E treatment on a busy Saturday evening, a variety of scans including an  MRI, alongside lots of fun with the bed controls in the children's ward.  Scarily moving to  a bigger hospital with not such good bed controls but thankfully an actual bed for me to sleep in,   followed by  intravenous antibiotics and a painful operation but always fantastic care by a host of super talented doctors and nurses.


Dress down Doctors!

We have learnt a whole new medical language:  PICC lines, Cannula, abscess, myositis and drains to name a few.  Along the way we discovered a  whole section of NHS care we had not needed before, community children's nurses are so helpful.  It is pretty rare to have a bone infection like this at his age, an abscess right next to his sciatic nerve and he mystified the doctors for a while.  Thankfully the worst is over, his scary PICC line was removed last week and apart from a few more weeks of antibiotics he is on the way to health.  

We missed the jubilee weekend but did have a great view of the Southampton docks from the top floor ward and just about saw the three Queens (ships) arrive in the docks from a distance  to mark the event.

Just about see the three Queens!

Life is just about returning to normal after such an upheaval and we are as ever so blessed by our many friends and family who all in different ways made a hard time easier.  Wonderful people who cared for our children,  cooked meals for us,  visited us, sent encouraging texts, even walked the dog,  all have been truly appreciated......life is so much better sharing it with all of you!


I really missed all the other children but especially my littlest girl and she seems to have grown up so much in the days we were apart, chatty and cheeky  and showing off her latest trick "I Wuby, Wuby Foss - her!"  Two years and four months and growing more independent daily, baby days are fading fast.


I am  very much  looking forward to a lovely catch up of everyone's blogs this afternoon,  I have missed my blog inspiration.  I did manage to squeeze in some knitting in hospital, every cloud has a  (crafty) silver lining!

34 comments:

  1. Goodness, how scary for you all. I do hope your son is well on the mend now. I don't think it's until it's needed that we realise what a fantastic health service we have here in the UK, it gets such a slating sometimes but it's always there when needed and I've had fantastic care myself.

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    1. Thank you Jo, the nhs does get such a slating and not always deserved!

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  2. Good to have you back Grace. Sorry you've had such a dreadful, worrying time. Pleased to hear that your son is on the mend. XX

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    1. good to be back and catch up with all your crafting too x

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  3. Oh my goodness - so sorry to hear that you and your son (and family) have had to go through this. I do believe that the NHS are wonderful in these sorts of situations though. I feel like I missed most of the first 8 months or so of my daughter's life while my sone was having chemo - I was breast feeding her but she spent most of the time in a buggy in the corner of one hospital room or another. They are pretty resilient little things though. hopefully now you can spend plenty of time with her and the rest of the family. XXX

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    1. It is amazing how quickly hospital becomes part of your life, 8 months - well done xx

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  4. Bless you Grace, good to know that things are getting better now. All good wishes x Sally x

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  5. How lovely to have you back. These children of ours can still frighten us even when they're almost grown. We too have nothing but praise for the NHS after our need for medical help with second daughter. And as for our networks and friends - what would we do without them?!

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    1. let's hear it for the nhs and even more for fab friends xx

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  6. How awful Grace - your poor son and you too of course with all that worry. I am so pleased he is on the mend. I have never even heard of the condition. Good to have you back and I am sure the family are delighted too. Hugs xx

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    1. Thank you for the welcome, great to be back! x

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  7. Oh wow, what a time you've had (ignore the last bit of the reply I left to your comment on my blog!!) I had no idea what osteomylitis was. Sounds awful! Hope your son is on the mend, and hope you can all get back to normality asap. Friends are the only way we can get through things like this I think :) xx

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    1. friends are the best - will email you about nappies x

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  8. I was wondering where you had got too, what a worry for you. Glad your son is now on the mind

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  9. Glad to hear that after all that you have been through, things are getting better. Gosh, I can imagine how hard it can be. Sending lots of hugs to you. xx

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    1. positive thoughts your way too, hope all is well with your mim in law? X

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  10. So pleased you are back and that your son is on the mend. It must have been a very scary time. It is amazing how quickly you get used to all the 'hospital speak' isn't it?

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    1. I feel I have taken a crash course in medical training! Hope all is well with you?

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  11. I wondered where you'd gone! Lots of love to you all. xxx

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  12. So pleased he is getting better now.I did wonder too where you were!

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  13. I was wondering what had happened to you... I'm so glad to hear that your son is on the road to recovery. Love and Best Wishes to you all. Jx

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    1. Thank you ....almost end of term!

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  14. Grace, you poor things. I imagine it was even worse for you than for your poor boy and I can't tell you how pleased I am that he is on the right side of it and let's hope that's the end of it. How scary. I was just thinking you were a bit quiet on the blogging/twitter radar and now I know why.
    All good wishes to you, mostly to your boy for a speedy recovery .. hoping he can get back to lovely things like lots of homework soon!!!
    Kate xox

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    1. Thank you for good wishes - homework not as appealing as the xbox sadly!!

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  15. Welcome back Grace, I missed you. So glad your son is on the mend. I remember when Samantha was in hospital last November, only one night but it was enough, I can't imagine spending weeks there. It was so hot as well! But like you, we had wonderful doctors and nurses. It's always on the news about the useless NHS system but I think it's great. And I had my granny stripe to keep me company! We don't go anywhere without our crafts, do we haha? Lots of love xxx

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    1. I felt like we had walked into a sauna at first - and they ran out of fans! Crafting is so soothing (although I still can't get crochet so it isn't at all calming for me at the moment!) xx

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  16. Wow I am glad it all worked out well in the end, what a scary journey that must have been :-(

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  17. Gosh poor you ... glad to hear things are getting back to normal. What a scare for you all. M x

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  18. scary but almost over - phew x

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Thank you for your lovely comments, they really do brighten my day!