Amar in Hospital: Day 2

Picture:

• (Upper Right) The ward Amar is staying in. It's the tall white building.
• (Upper Left) We spent the whole afternoon in the games room of the ward. Sarah really enjoyed herself.
• (Lower Right) This was Amar yesterday, while waiting to be seen by a doctor in Accidents and Emergency.
• (Lower Left) A view of the ward.

Amar and Nisa is still in Coventry & Warwickshire Hospital. Amar has been seen by the consultant this morning. To update you guys with previous events, Amar's abscess has popped and so the operation to incise the finger was abandoned. The consultant requested for intravenous antibiotics.

Today, nothing much has progressed! Amar has had an x-ray of the finger to rule out a bone infection (note: a bone infection is extremely serious as bony joints could be destroyed by the infection very rapidly: within hours). He has also undergone a blood test. I heard from Nisa that the staff has had GREAT DIFFICULTY getting blood from Amar. Having worked in paediatrics in the past, I absolutely understand - last night I had a look at Amar's arms and I knew blood taking procedures would be difficult as his veins are extremely scarce.

They have also failed to obtain intravenous access, and so instead of IV antibiotics, Amar is having oral flucloxacillin; which is the exact medication he was taking before admission, at home!

This is the third time Amar has suffered a spontaneous infection of his fingertips and the surgeons are planning to rule out diabetes by doing further tests. There is no history of type 1 diabetes on my side of the family nor Nisa's side, and I really hope to God that Amar doesn't have it.

I am slightly annoyed. For one, Amar is only receiving oral antibiotics, the exact one he would have taken if he had stayed at home. Furthermore, Amar has missed two doses of his antibiotics while in hospital, while the surgeons were trying to get IV access. I'm also annoyed that although Amar has had his xray during early hours of this morning, the xray was only reviewed at around 8pm!

Although it has been a testing few days, everyone in the family seems to be holding well. Amar today seemed extremely happy to see Sarah and I as we walked into his cubicle. Soon after, Amar and Sarah were both chasing each other around the whole ward (while we watched everyone else's children sitting quietly by their beds). Amar's finger has only slightly gotten better.

Nisa, poor Nisa, looked understandably tired and slightly sleep deprived. Because we hadn't planned for Amar to stay in hospital last night, we overlooked bringing spare clothes, nappies, toiletries, money, a fully charged phone and any food. I would leave describing Nisa's state to fellow readers' own imagination, as it'd be too unpleasant for me.

Sarah, I cannot really tell. At the moment it's only the two of us in the house, and at times she does mention "Mama?" and "Amar?". However, whatever she's feeling inside, she's putting up a brave, cheerful face and I honestly could not tell if she's unhappy.

As for me, I'm still trying to recover from my nights oncall. I'm quite sleep deprived, managing only 2 hours of sleep last night (but I feel absolutely fine!). I'm also not eating anything proper (as is Nisa, I'm sure) because all the time I have is split between visiting and taking care of Sarah.

On that note, I think I'll catch up on some sleep now. Mama Sarah sends her love to everyone and said, "Sorry I couldn't update my blog, I will as soon as I get back. Thank you everyone for all the kind words."

Note:
I know staying in hospital is mind-numbingly boring. Today I have bought for Nisa:
1. A sudoku puzzlebook
2. Narnia DVD (she has always been hinting she wanted to watch Narnia as she is a fan of the books).
3. A book (I'll keep the title a secret as not to embarrass her).
4. A magazine (also a secret).
5. I lent her my phone for internet access (Using Opera Mini 2.0, of course)
6. LOTS OF FOOD. Chocolates, sandwiches, sushi, pasta, juice and sweets.