Eve came to visit tonight. Uncle David had taken Joyce (Mother In Law) to pick Eve up from school, and I'd promised her that if Joel was well enough, she could come and visit. On Tuesday though, he wasn't well so I didn't want Eve to see him in such a state. She wasn't happy. When we phoned home, Eve was in tears, crying "You promised I could visit, you promised me!!". I had to correct her, that I'd actually promised she could visit 'today or tomorrow, IF he's well enough'.. but kids are kids... wants are wants.
Today he was much better, smiling (though the weakness on the left side of his face is still worrying me - but it's not that bad as you can see from the picture above).. so a visit from Eve is on the cards....
Eve brought a lot of cards from school for Joel - all the classes had made cards, with good luck messages and love hearts (That's my boy!) - and lovely pictures and poems. Everybody is wishing him a speedy recovery and passing on their thoughts from school.
The painkillers wear off from time to time (as they do) and Joel starts to get a little angry.. lashing out at mommy when she goes near him.. he's excused, but told that it isn't a nice thing to do.. but we accept a few smacks from him.. I say 'we'.. I've yet to get one, but I'm sure my time will come. You can't begin to imagine the pain he's going through - but yet even the nurses have commented how little medication he's received considering the surgery he's had done... all the other kids on the ward screaming when they have to have any (even orally!) - Joel just bears as much as he can, then tells us he's hurting ever so matter of factly...
He doesn't like the taste of one of the medicines.. not sure if it's the codeine or paracetamol.. One of them is aniseed flavour, which is, frankly, enough to make me vomit at the smell alone.
We were hoping that Eve could 'Facetime' us when she got home.. the hospital has wifi access, but it's very flaky when the wards are busy, and just moderately flaky when the visitors have gone home.. even so, it's amazing what sites they block, especially considering all the TV's on the ward have the adult channel's listed in the menu (in a CHILDREN'S hospital???). I'm not sure anyone has been watching them on the ward, but I have my suspicions as to one or two that might.
For the record, I haven't even tried to see if they work. If the car-park charges are anything to go by, I'd be frightened of firstly, the embarrassment of being presented with a bill for 'miscellaneous services' and secondly, the probably horrendous cost. Besides which, the TV's are switched off remotely at 8pm - although they can be enabled on a 'request' basis.. but I can't imagine any parent or child going to the nurses station asking for "30 minutes of Television X" please..
Besides which - I've discovered the curtains in the TV show "Casualty" must be custom made with soundproofing as Charlie Fairhead talks about patients right next to the cubicle and they can't hear a thing. We've tried drawing the curtains around our bay and you can still hear the boy in the next bed playing with his PSP and farting all night. He's a teenager, so farting as loud as you can is only to be expected.. but surely the battery in his PSP should have died by now?? and he can't watch TV AND play that damned boxing game at the same time??
Anyway, I received several emails from Eve during the night, complaining that she had been trying to facetime me and I was apparently 'ending' the call before it even connected. The truth is, whenever I did get a facetime request, I'd accept it, but the flaky wifi meant that it wouldn't connect at all.. I can't even connect to the App store to buy Joel "Angry Birds" for his iPod touch... which I'd promised him for being good (Yes, he was going to be bought it anyway - he'd completed the 12 levels of the free version and was getting frustrated at not being able to progress!).
Louise connected to facebook and managed to update her friends and work colleagues with the day's progress... I connected to the wifi and broke it.. every site 'blocked'.. Facebook, Twitter, even news.bbc.co.uk (what had good old Aunty done to offend the NHS??)
I'd have to deal with a very upset Eve when I see her next morning.. not to mention the fact that I'd championed FaceTime as a way of talking to each other and being able to see each other while we're apart.. what an epic #fail. :(
Average day. I say average, I guess it's good overall... but could be much better.
No comments:
Post a Comment