Unwalking Wounded

There will be many times that your requirements as a parent surprises even you, like it did me today.

Something inside me was ringing small little alarm bells after Saturday night's debacle. Adam had cut his foot open cleaning up broken glass and accidentally stepped on a piece which cut his foot quite badly. Not wanting to "ruin" my Saturday night dinner with friends, he decided he'd tell me about it on Sunday morning. Well, one look at the wound and we were off to the hospital. I could see straight away that it wasn't just a superficial cut and that it needed more attention that it had already received. Alex had, in my absence, attended to him really, really well but she wasn't aware of how deep and how serious the cut really was.

So, after x-rays were done and it was discovered that he still had a wedge of glass implanted in his foot, we were sent home until they located a plastic surgeon who could remove it. This being a Public Holiday and all, it was deemed nigh on impossible so antibiotics and painkillers in hand, we went home.

But something niggled at me. Not sure but it all seemed rather anti-climactic, like unfinished business. I rang the next day to find out that they had 'overlooked' putting Adam on the surgery list.....is this what they call Mother's instinct?

A wonderful, wonderful triage nurse "back-pedalled' and had him on today's list.

So, there we were, just the two of us, waiting, waiting, waiting.......and it's at this time - in retrospect - that I realise how powerful a parent's presence can be. For 10 hours, Adam and I played games that we made up on the spot like Name as many bands starting with the letter "B" and Name as many animals consecutively starting with the alphabet and Name as many countries/towns starting with the alphabet.

BUT the best game we played was using the surgical gloves we found as turkey giblet things and wearing them on our heads - well Adam's head to be exact - I have pics. We also used the 'paper' undies he was given to use during surgery as a hat and then a mask! Gotta say we snorted so much that even the staff were laughing at us. Not to mention trying not to laugh outloud at an elderly gentleman who was sharing the waiting ward with us who kept inadvertently "letting Polly out of prison".

So we were finally wheeled off to pre-op and Adam became very quiet, which I expected. False bravado aside, I think he was nervous as he's never undergone surgery leave alone general anaesthetic before. The plastic surgeon came out and introduced himself and asked Adam "So, young Mr. Bailey, what are we doing for you today?" I responded "Ummmm, a circumcision isn't it? The surgeon replies "It's what I've got here on my chart".....AAAAAAARGH!

Once they took him off to surgery, I was left facing the empty space where my son was lying, laughing with me only moments ago and, for a brief moment, my imagination went some place dark and morbid and the pain I felt in my heart ......well...I can't totally encompass the words to convey the heartache. Silly woman!

Once he came to, I went to see him in post op, which coincidentally was also pre-op - just the other side of the room - ingenius! My son was off his flying nut! He was laughing and talking very, very LOUDLY. The entire staff came to hear the racket and even they started laughing at him. "Can we have KFC now, MUM? This stuff is WONDERFULLLLL. I don't FEEEEL anything. I FEEEEEL good. Mum, I'm happy and they found my blood but it spurted everywhere and the lady said I had good veins".

Relief? You have no idea how relaxed your own body can become when relief seeps in. Yes, relief! My son was swinging from the vines but he was happy and out of pain and - better - the glass was out of his foot, finally. They saved it in a container and it was larger than we all thought ti would be - poor thing.

Anyway, it's quietish now and, on reflection, it has surprised me how calm I have been today and how patient I've been. Patience and I have never been the best of friends yet when it came to one of my treasured children, I had all the patience in the world. I had all the time to play word games and surgical glove games and talk endlessly about 'stuff'......

It was a very beautiful moment when Adam suddenly realised that I had been playing those games with him to distract him - that I wasn't trying to relieve my own boredom because I really wasn't bored at all. He was truly amazed at how distracted he DID become and how involved he got with the games we played and how grateful he was for the effort. it was when he said "I'm going to remember this for when I have kids" and that meant the world to me.