Larissa is home

Couple more pics from Hutt Hospital

Still groggy.
No stitches

I have to admit that I was very impressed with Hutt Hospital. From contacting them on Wed to find that WLG Paediatrics had not made a booking to having the op first thing on Thursday is pretty impressive. And the new theatres are pretty impressive.

All done.

GeoTagged, [S41.20642, W174.91326]

Stitches all removed. Katya is catching up on her breakfast.

In Hutt theatre

We got number one slot. She is in theatre now.

Stitches Out

Just got called by Hutt Hospital. Katya needs to be sedated to get her stitches out so tomorrow 8am we have to roll on up. Poor little one is going to have quite a phobia of hospitals.

You wouldn't believe it!!!

We have been getting Katya's IV medication from the paediatric ward at Wellington Hospital. Katya picked up a virus that made her puke. We are pretty sure it is a virus as she is so high on anti-biotics no bacteria could have survived in her. And I am pretty sure it is from the play room in the ward.

She passed it onto me but I managed to just feel shady for 24 hours.

Claire however is is now puking like mad.

A nice touch from our hospital system. A place you go to to get well and we end up getting made sick.

I have been busy disinfecting surfaces around the house so we don't get any re-infection.

It seems to only be a 24 hour thing so hopefully tomorrow will be a better day.

Latest Larissa - 6 months

Back at Kindy

We made a late call today to go to Kindy

Back tomorrow

We are being transferred to WLG hospital tomorrow. Still need flights confirmed. We are going to need to visit hospital every afternoon for 10min. Hopefully we can get this modified so we get a few home visits. But very pleased to be heading home.

Canterbury DHB outperforms Wlg

We are having issues with WLG not wanting to provide support for giving Katya here IV antibiotics. Canterbury DHB would if we were here.
There is now some "discussion" going on.
This is reasonably typical of the Canterbury crowd. They just sort stuff.

Progress...

Just had a meeting and we are going to try to move onto a once a day... Ten minute antibiotic. Provided that works we will either move to WLG hospital or straight home... Depending on what the wlg people feel comfortable about.
So good news and hopefully only one more 2.5 hour session.
I want to make sure our ENT people are happy first.

Tuesday

A bit of a frustrating day. Infectious diseases said they would visit and didn't. And Katya's wound is a little red. Still she is so pumped on antibiotics, it should be fine. A house surgeon is meant to be checking this tonight.
The nurses have been busy with a patient that has not been doing well. So our 2.5 hour treatment is looking more like 3+ hours.
Our ENT surgeon was a bit blunt today saying we essentially need to knuckle under and expect that the next six weeks are not going to be fun. He is probably right. It would be good if the treatment regime could be a bit less brutal.
Hopefully we find out what is happening tomorrow regarding the treatment regime.
Claire made it back to Wellington which is really good.

Happy at Ronald McDonald House

The stitches

This is a pic of the stitches.

Finally we are clear!

We officially are clear of some superbug that is in WLG hospital. So no more isolation.

Infections on Cochlear Implants

I thought I would put together a profile of what happened leading up to Katya's op so that maybe someone else might react a bit earlier

This pic was taken four months ago. The scar had never lost its red colour at the top.

Katya then got a cold and the scar 'blow up' to a point where the magnet would not attach.

This then settled with anti-biotics.
But then it came back and moved.
And this is the result...

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. We probably should have had the surgeon look at the scar in person and biopsied it when it was just red and identified the bug. This would have given us a chance to treat with antibiotics only.

Anyway... if you see something like this with a CI, jump on it early.

Waiting...

We are now waiting for a number of things:

Pathology on infection
Clearance on MRSA
A new six week drug regime based on the pathology results

This will then determine whether and when we can go home.

Katya has already decided the bandage is coming off.

Arm better

Katya's arm is a lot better.
We are now waiting for Monday when hopefully they will know what the bug was and can adjust the antibiotic regime to be manageable. Until then we are staying put in hospital.
Wes and Nik visited today. And so did Kris who took us shopping. I had run out of nappy bags.

A few issues

We are having a few issues with the iv. Doctor is happy but Katya's arm has swelled. So we are watching Maisey at 3.30am!
I am also having issues with the iv. When the doctors and nurses start dealing with it I faint. Medicine was never going to be a career path for me.

Lovely flowers

The chch gardens have lovely flowers.

One of the advantages of bilateral implants

While Katya's right implant is out of action for a few weeks, she can still hear with the left. She just needs less background noise.
Xray showed no movement (Sym's expert assessment... Lol!). This means Katya should be able to get straight back onto using it when the wound heals.
Have meet a lovely church couple in recovery and a lovely Christian nurse on our ward. It is a real blessing to have such people swing into ones life at such times.

Last night

Had a lot of time up last night with the drip going. She decided it was snack time each time the drip went.

Katya up and about

Katya out of surgery

The 1 hour op took over 4 hours. However they have been able to leave the implant in and not damage it, although that will only be confirmed down the track.

Surgery Today

Made it to hospital in time. Katya is happy even though she is not allowed to eat or drink.
I had a broken night's sleep. Suppose that is to be expected.
Last night Katya was telling me to be quiet using the sssshhhhh sound. It was quite cool.

Back in CHCH

Today we got confirmation of the surgery for Katya. It is scheduled for 8am tomorrow,

We had a day of doctors but got some fun times as well.

If you watch WHAT NOW you might recognise the guy in the last photo. The WHAT NOW crew provided dinner.

Sleeping Katya

Youtube Channel

Check out my YouTube Channel

http://www.youtube.com/user/symgardiner

A bit of an update

Things are starting to go well at the moment.

Claire is coming off one of the drugs and it is making a huge difference. She is coming up tomorrow for an interview for a job and has another job that looks even better in the pipe line. We have scheduled that she will return to Wellington permanently on the 20th.

I have resigned from my job and will look after the kids etc from the 19th Oct. So basically we are doing a role swap. We think that Claire working will give her a bit of space to heal completely.

The plan is that we will get settled and then look to move Larissa back down here in a few weeks.

About the only thing not tracking is CYFS who are being quite unhelpful at the moment. Hopefully they can get themselves together and realise we have things tracking well and down't need their "help".

Tonight the husband of one of my colleagues came around and started plastering the alterations that we had to do to get consent. It is looking good. I plan to have that complete before Claire comes back.

I am looking forward to having my family back together although it will be very different not working and focusing on the kids.

Photos from the weekend

Had a nice weekend up north with Larissa. She has her first tooth and bit me with it. Left a dent but no blood like Katya did with her first one.

Building consent finally approved

Tonight I finally got my building consent approved. The notice to fix is withdrawn and the approval will be sent out.