Elephant Down!

My day started at 0200 when my mobile phone buzzed to remind me to “feed Bryan”. Within 15 mins, I had his 2 slices of bread and ‘Tella on his plate, his cup of Baby-cino and his Spongebob cup of water on the dining table as well as my er… sup-fast? It’s amazing how I can actually eat a proper breakfast at 2 in the morning. Bryan wasn’t too fazed at the fact that it was still night-time, thanks to drawn curtains around the house. Pre-op rules stated last meal at 0330 and last drink at 0530. What to do? I didn’t want him to sleep through and end up hungry and cranky, so I had no choice but to wake him up at 2am.

A trooper he was, he ate, drank and went back to bed…. MY bed! And that can only mean one thing… no sleep for me. I drifted in and out of sleep till 6am when again, my mobile phone buzzed for all of us to wake up.

The what was supposed to be a 20minute ride to Southbank Surgery took us an hour. The bloody traffic jam from South Street ALL THE BLOODY WAY to Canning Highway was absolutely AARRRGGGGGHHAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! No other words can describe it.. honestly. Well actually there is... but since I have young eyes reading......

Nevertheless, we arrived, albeit 10mins late. Bryan had fun looking at fish, had fun chatting with the really really nice and friendly nurses here and he also made a friend too! He shared his DVD player with this pretty and friendly little girl.

First the nurses prepared his IV site and Emla-ed the back of his hands. Then they gave him chocolate flavoured midazolam to make him drunk. And boy did he! Instead of the usual giggly or sleepy effect…. he had the worst….. tears! Buckets of tears…. as though he had lost his crocodiles + bakugan + snake collection all at once…. you get the picture. Luckily, reprieve came in 10mins when the nurses whisked us into the theater. The surgeon was the clown of the theater, bringing out sticker collections and blowing up a red-back spider balloon for Bryan. And after the sedative hit the IV and Bryan gave a little cough, he was out like a light…. and that was when the nurses hurried me out of the theater and into the waiting room.

You know, you’d think that an RN like me, who has assisted in tonnes of operations, would feel absolutely nothing going through all that, but somehow, seeing Bryan, from a plucky, cheeky rascal, to slipping into unconsciousness, it tears me.

So here I am now, with 90 mins to burn. Will stop now, and get my free meal voucher from the nurse. Oh did I say free meal? Oh I meant $1500.00 meal. I’ll let you know what the menu was in a tic….