The Grommet Update

Thomas and I headed to the Mater Hospital early this morning and enjoyed having some quality time together. We had about half an hour in the waiting room before we were all ushered to the children's ward. There were about 6 children having surgery for different things and quite a funny (not funny ha ha...) experience being 'ushered' to the ward. Thomas was the only child who responded to questions by the orderly telling stories about our Mother's day (making me realise that nothing is ever personal with children anymore!). Everyone in the lift heard about my lovely breakfast in bed for Mother's day, along with other interesting stories Thomas could recall in the minute riding in the lift and walking to the ward!

We continued to wait for the next hour on the children's ward before heading off to the surgical ward. Always a fairly daunting experience for me and Thomas was a real trooper. Thomas was on the bed ready and waiting and they wheeled us to the door just outside surgical room 6. Once again we waited for about 10 minutes...

Thomas was chatting with the nurses ( I think we saw about 5 of them in that short space of time) and was eager to share with them about Mother's Day, the biscuits he made me at school and again at Sunday School (although I only saw these ones as they were being eaten on Sunday from their Sunday school room!). He showed them the cuts on his knee and finger.

The finger was an incident that occurred last Monday when Thomas and Zach were riding on Cameron's long board. Unfortunately Thomas' finger got stuck under the wheel and took a good chunk of skin off. Unfortunately again it was his middle finger!
So, Thomas innocently holds up his middle finger to the nurse,
'Look what I did,' he says.
Then the ENT specialist comes out and Thomas shows him 'the finger'.
The ENT says 'These ladies show me the finger too sometimes! You show them again'.
Then he says, 'Actually, I know a nurse that needs to see that finger. Let me go get her'.
A nurse appears. The ENT says to Thomas, 'Show her your finger'.
Innocently Thomas shows her 'the finger'.
At this point I say to them 'I cannot believe that you are using my son to do this!'
The ENT says to me, 'I bet you taught him how to do it!' (I assure you I did not!).

Highly embarrassed we had to wait a further few minutes before we were taken into the surgical room!

Thomas wasn't a fan of the anaesthetic (before or after!) however, he managed very well. He was a delight for the nurses and ate through 2 Vegemite sandwiches, a can of lemonade and a tub of ice cream before we left the hospital at 12.30.

The grommets have been put back successfully but now we need to pray that they don't fall out and then have to go through the process again! At the moment we are suspecting some permanent hearing loss due to the previous ear infections and grommets so we are praying (and would love your prayers too) that Thomas makes a complete recovery with full hearing. Speech therapy is another prayer point for us as there is about a 12month waiting period here in Townsville. We would really like to continue with Thomas' speech therapy now so that he is set and ready for school next year and we need a miracle for that to happen!

Other than that, Thomas is doing great and has been an absolute wonder today. People are gob-smacked when they find out that he is my eldest of almost 4 children... He is my grown up boy and an absolute delight! (Generally speaking of course!)