Paul from Australia
01-22-2008, 04:11 AM
G'day everyone.
You will be pleased to hear that Grant came home from hospital today after spending 6 nights in a very posh private hospital costing us $50 a night for a maximum of 4 nights, last 2 nights for free. We have top hospital insurance.
He came home on an antibiotic which we will continue for a few days.
The xrays and blood work yesterday showed that Grant is in championship mode :)
The admitting doc was very good really. He didn't want to rush Grant home, but wanted to make sure that Grant was 100% before sending him home. Grant's time in hospital was really fairly straight forward as the hospital only (not that only is only) had to deal with the pneumonia. Grant wasn't having lots of grand mal seizures at all.
I stayed every night with him except one, when Alison stayed. We couldn't leave him on his own for one second because he was in his own room and if he had a bad seizure the nurse's wouldn't have noticed.
ANOTHER SMALL WORLD
In my previous hospital post I mentioned that I saw my ex-piano student who is now a nurse. Well here is another small world true story.
A nurse who has known Grant since he was 2 in his big/regular hospital is no longer directly involved with Grant because he is over 18. She is our miracle/angel nurse. A wonderful person. You simply couldn't speak more highly of her if you tried. She is the one that put together the training for the Paraldehyde carers when Grant was on the special funded program with the children's hospital. Now that Grant is over 18 we don't have and can't have any Paralehyde trained carers. I digress! Anyway lo and behold in Grant's ward this week we saw her mum (Joan, not her real name) who is also a nurse. How about that eh!
BUT THERE'S MORE ;)
We shared with Joan our dire straights in not having any high nursing needs hospital as yet willing to take Grant. She was very interested. She said that her other daughter is the head of a high needs place, not too far away. She said that she would contact her to see if Grant could go to this place for respite. We will believe it when/if it happens, but of course we are thrilled that there is a possibility for Grant out there.
IT IS AMAZING
It is amazing you know how not all nurses are created equal. Grant has the Mic-Key button, and apparantly patients in the private hospital very rarely are seen, who have Mic-Key buttons. I say this because none of the nurses knew how to connect the tubing that goes into the Mic-Key button (the umbilical cord as we call it) :). In fact one nurse tried to give the Losec through the small opening that you use to pump up the balloon (in Grant's tummy). Isn't that a bit scary = Crikey!
HOMEWORK
We have a lot of homework as the review for Grant's funding will take place probably within a month and we are seeking a big increase in funds for this year as Grant is certainly more frail than he was 14 months ago when we got the funding for last year.
With love and hooroo for now.
Paul, Alison and Grant in championship mode.
You will be pleased to hear that Grant came home from hospital today after spending 6 nights in a very posh private hospital costing us $50 a night for a maximum of 4 nights, last 2 nights for free. We have top hospital insurance.
He came home on an antibiotic which we will continue for a few days.
The xrays and blood work yesterday showed that Grant is in championship mode :)
The admitting doc was very good really. He didn't want to rush Grant home, but wanted to make sure that Grant was 100% before sending him home. Grant's time in hospital was really fairly straight forward as the hospital only (not that only is only) had to deal with the pneumonia. Grant wasn't having lots of grand mal seizures at all.
I stayed every night with him except one, when Alison stayed. We couldn't leave him on his own for one second because he was in his own room and if he had a bad seizure the nurse's wouldn't have noticed.
ANOTHER SMALL WORLD
In my previous hospital post I mentioned that I saw my ex-piano student who is now a nurse. Well here is another small world true story.
A nurse who has known Grant since he was 2 in his big/regular hospital is no longer directly involved with Grant because he is over 18. She is our miracle/angel nurse. A wonderful person. You simply couldn't speak more highly of her if you tried. She is the one that put together the training for the Paraldehyde carers when Grant was on the special funded program with the children's hospital. Now that Grant is over 18 we don't have and can't have any Paralehyde trained carers. I digress! Anyway lo and behold in Grant's ward this week we saw her mum (Joan, not her real name) who is also a nurse. How about that eh!
BUT THERE'S MORE ;)
We shared with Joan our dire straights in not having any high nursing needs hospital as yet willing to take Grant. She was very interested. She said that her other daughter is the head of a high needs place, not too far away. She said that she would contact her to see if Grant could go to this place for respite. We will believe it when/if it happens, but of course we are thrilled that there is a possibility for Grant out there.
IT IS AMAZING
It is amazing you know how not all nurses are created equal. Grant has the Mic-Key button, and apparantly patients in the private hospital very rarely are seen, who have Mic-Key buttons. I say this because none of the nurses knew how to connect the tubing that goes into the Mic-Key button (the umbilical cord as we call it) :). In fact one nurse tried to give the Losec through the small opening that you use to pump up the balloon (in Grant's tummy). Isn't that a bit scary = Crikey!
HOMEWORK
We have a lot of homework as the review for Grant's funding will take place probably within a month and we are seeking a big increase in funds for this year as Grant is certainly more frail than he was 14 months ago when we got the funding for last year.
With love and hooroo for now.
Paul, Alison and Grant in championship mode.