Hospital again and again

A lot has happened since the last time I posted an entry. There are still a few unpublished events. I guess those have to wait now. As for now, let me just update with a very brief entry regarding Amar.

Tuesday, 3 July: I noticed a swelling near his groin.

Wednesday, 4 July: A trace of pus was seen in his nappy suspected from the swelling.

Thursday, 5 July: I took Amar to the Walk in Centre (WIC). [Our GP - as usual fully booked and kept on asking us to call the next day.] The doctor at the Walk in Centre dismissed us saying that it was just another chicken pox coming out. [Angry mode: *#$$%&(#$*@*%#] [I promised a brief entry so I spare you all with the details]

Friday, 6 July: We were not happy with the doctor's diagnosis from the WIC. So I booked an appointment to see our GP. Luckily we got an appointment at 11am. We waited until 11.30am to be seen by Dr.Sood. She examined Amar, prescribed antibiotics and ibuprofen and then referred Amar to the hospital.

Sarah, Amar and I took the public bus to Coventry University Hospital. We waited for a while and we were seen by a nurse. We continued waiting until a doctor called out Amar's name around 2pm. The children A&E doctor was happy to let us go home with antibiotics but she would like a second opinion from a Surgeon.

Again omitting the many (my anger and frustration) details, we waited a further 5 hours to be seen by the surgeon (That was around 7.30pm). He was in the theatre the whole time. Babah arrived to see us about an hour before the Surgeon's examination on Amar.

After a quick examination, the Surgeon called a Urologist for another opinion. By then Amar was already traumatised by people groping his private part. After at least three separate examinations, the Urologist referred us to Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Saturday, 7 July: Amar was given an appointment at 10am to go straight to ward 9. There was also instruction for Amar to have his last milk at 6am and last clear fluid at 10am just to prepare him for a surgery.

Again all my frustration, bitter and sad memories will be excluded from this entry.

Two hours after we arrived, Amar was seen by a nurse for his history and general check up. We were all hungry since it was already lunch time. We had to sneak away from Amar just to have a bite of bread and a sip of drink. He finally saw Sarah eating a chocolate filled brioche and started to whine and extended his hand through the cot's bars as if pleading to have just a tiny bit of the bread.

He continued crying until he fell asleep -hungry- on Babah's shoulder. He slept for about two hours and woke up smiling.

Then finally around 4pm (almost one whole day of fasting by our 2 year old Amar), the Registrar and (I assume) the Consultant oncall came to Amar's bed to examine him. The Registrar apologised several times for the wait to which Babah didn't say anything, and I avoided her eye-contact for I too was uncertain what to say.

Both doctors were happy to discharge Amar from the ward that day, [excluding all the medical jargons] but he has to come again on Monday for a review.

So that's the briefest summary I could give here. To date, the swelling has reduced in size and Amar looks OK. He still continues with his antibiotics and hopefully he won't have to go through a surgery afterall.