medical month cometh

"Medical Month" has begun... in a couple of hours, we take my son in for his surgery, and we should get to take him back home from the hospital sometime mid-late next week. The following Monday, my partner goes in for her radiation (radio-iodine) treatment, and comes home a few days later. A hell of a month, though there is something to be said for getting it all over with as quickly as possible. No great surprise, I've been almost totally unable to get any work done the last day or two -- guess I'm a little worried, eh?

All good thoughts appreciated, and I'll post updates here anon.

Forest is out of surgery

The surgeon and the anaesthesiologist agree that "it couldn't have gone better." They also said this is one of the two most painful procedures they do, so an epidural painkiller is a real blessing. It's so hard to see anyone you love in pain, all the worse when they're six. They're serious about pain management here for kids, thankfully. Forest has been zoned out for the past several hours, but is now awake, fairly alert, and watching a "Magic Schoolbus" video. Having a partner who works at the hospital is also a blessing, someone who knows how to make sure the right people do the right things at the right time. This hospital is far and away the best I've seen anywhere in the world, especially in terms of the consistently high level of care and consideration given to patients, but even here, it always helps to have an advocate near at hand. Right now, we're waiting for an on-call anaesthesiologist to arrive, because there's an off-chance the epidural catheter got partially pulled out when we had to quickly elevate Forest to deal with some sudden post-surgery nausea. I am also glad that I speak the language of trauma care and medical lingo. [EDIT: the anaesthesiologist showed up promptly and set up a new epidural pump, apologizing profusely for not coming sooner due to being involved in an emergency care situation -- this place is *such* a good hospital...]

I am very tired. I got a grand total of 1/2 hour of sleep last night, and I hope to sleep like a rock tonight, eventually. Thank you to all of you for your thoughts, support and love, I appreciate it more than I can say. Those of you who want to call the hospital room, give a call to Casa Chaos, and lylythe_strega has the info. I'll post more news here as I can. Love to all.