Stop the World, I Want to Get Off

Ever have one of those days? Well I feel like we've been having one of those months. The gastro which took over our families continues it's path of mayhem, having now taken down my younger sister-in-law as well as my brother. And my father has been in the ER for over 80 hours, waiting to be admitted. He'll probably leave first, since it seems that whatever knocked him out (they still don't know what) is on the wane, and will hopefully resolve itself before they find a bed.

The difference between the adult hospitals and the Children's is like night and day. On Tuesday, I brought Emily back to the ER for dehydration (again). Within 2 hours she had been seen, assessed, treated and sent home. My father was lucky if he passed through triage in that time. I know adult hospitals are busier (rightly so), but it just seems so extreme. For the record, he is being well taken care of; he's currently in a "holding" unit of the ER for patients waiting to be admitted, rather than the real ER, and is being seen and evaluated by the doctors regularly. Now to get selfish: how does this affect me? Other than the obvious stress of having 2 immediate family members in hospital, I've lost one of my daughter's main care givers, my mom. Luckily, this past week Roger was on vacation, but starting Monday things will get interesting. At least Emily's swimming is over and her fall activities and preschool only start in two weeks. I'm sure things will have sorted themselves out by then, but for the moment she will probably spend a lot of time with my in-laws.

Also, for those of you not in Montreal, the downtown portion of the Metro green line (including the Atwater station) has been closed indefinitely due to cracks found in some underground tunnels leading to the McGill Metro station near the Bay. Again, what does this mean to us? If Roger drives to work he will be facing increased traffic. If he doesn't drive, it will be harder to reach the hospital by public transportation. Likewise for my in-laws, who were only a 20 minute Metro ride away from the hospital. Now they face an arduous walk up Atwater from Lionel-Groulx or long bus rides. I hope that it won't affect their frequent visits, and the respite they offer me.

Benjamin is a very peppy little boy. In the past week he's had both blood and platelet transfusions, as his numbers are still dropping, but his energy levels are unaffected. The doctors are all thrilled by his general state of health, and how outwardly unaffected he seems by his treatments. The staff are all just waiting for him to spike a fever, since that is normal and expected at this stage, but he refuses to "cooperate", and remains perfectly healthy, considering. But at times, I think it would be easier to take care of a mellower, sleepier child. Benjamin managed to detach his IV while crawling one day last week. What tipped me off was the thin trail of blood he was leaving behind him as it dripped out of the open port! He also banged a toy against his mouth, cutting his gums above the front teeth and leaving him with a bloody smile for the next couple of hours. For a child who is supposed to be in the "delicate" period before his counts start coming back up, Benjamin is not very delicate. I mean, he even tried to push himself up to standing by pushing down on the rocking chair (actually, that was pretty funny to watch). He turns himself around so often that his IV line starts to look like a telephone cord, and I get dizzy uncurling it.

The title of this post implies a "why me? Can I run away?" attitude, and while I do get my moments, I think it's natural, and they pass. Benjamin is doing great, and my father is feeling better every day, and that's what's important. I know that everything will work out as it is meant to be. In the meantime, I'll just sit tight and grab all the small reprieves I can get.