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Carolines Flower Menagerie
The beautiful flowers well wishers had sent herWe were due in Sydney, on the weekend to stay with Jan and Ted as we were going to go to the camping and outdoor show at Rosehill, as we may, and I say, may have just put a deposit on something like a T-VAN, unless we had seen something more extreme, that we liked.
Though we would may have put a deposit on something, I don’t think we would have taken delivery for at least a year, you never know, we may have another adventure on the horizon
We loved this show and had a fantastic time last year with Jan and Ted at their lovely home in Winston Hills.
We got home from work, on Thursday evening 5th May and Caroline wasn’t feeling very well.
Caroline lay on the couch and didn’t feeling like eating anything, and was complaining of a sore stomach. I asked her if she wanted me to take her to the hospital, but she felt that it was not necessary.
We retired to bed at our normal reasonable time, and at 5.00 am on Friday morning, I was just up and around, when I heard a little voice asking me to take her to hospital.
We both dressed in about 2 seconds flat and we were soon pulling in to the Calvary Hospital in Bruce, fortunately less than a 5 minute drive from where we are living.
Amazingly at this time there were no other cars in the car park and when we walked in to A&E, we were ushered straight through, where Caroline was laid on an inspection bed.
It wasn’t long before Caroline was seen by a doctor, and soon had been advised that she was booked to go under the knife at 1.00pm today, as that is when they start the emergency operations, (you will be aware, you regular readers, that we have used the title) “under the knife, before”.
It was quite clear, that Caroline’s explanation of her symptoms and her examinations was spot on and the specialists were cock sure of their prognosis, so much so, they had booked a slot in the operation schedule for Caroline and did not even bother with a scan.
I sat in the chair and held her hand, they had already put a canular in and the infusion of antibiotics mixed with morphein, now coursed through her veins, building up a barrier against the infection in her appendix.
I inquisitively asked the nurse what your appendix does, and she told me that they were a “left over” part from our development and are now not needed.
Basically she suggested they were internal organ anchors, and I could just imagine, well lets not go there!
I mulled over in my mind, why emergency operations were at 1.00pm, you would have thought they would be at 8.00am, but who am I to comment?
Caroline had been put on a ward, level 4 E9 and had been prepped for her impending operation.
At 2.30 she was taken away, and I sat in the comfy chairs, and just tried to relax and await her safe and well return.
In my period of waiting I phoned Jan and Ted and told them the news, Caroline has “railroaded” our week end, and we won’t be able tomake it.
Jan said she fully understood and sent Caroline and myself of course all of their love.
At 5.25 my mobile rang, it was Grace the surgeon, who had said that Caroline was in recovery, it had been a more difficult operation than they had anticipated as her appendix, was in such bad condition and badly infected, but it was all over and we now needed to give her a lot of care in getting better.
They eventually wheeled her bed back from where she left earlier and had a strange yellowy grey hue to her, she did not look well at all.
She drifted in and out of consciousness for a while then eventually was awake but was so very lethargic. I stayed with her, for an hour or so, then felt she needed rest, so on one of her sleepy moments, I quietly padded out and went off home.
Obviously my whole weekend was consumed by being at the hospital, most of the time, popping home for a couple of hours then back again, just so Caroline could rest.
The company had sent her the most amazing arrangement of flowers, with this and all the other flowers she had received from friends her little bed space was a menagerie of colour.
She seemed very unwell, and it concerned me greatly, the infection seemed so powerful and the antibiotics where upsetting her badly.
How patient care has changed over the years, 30 years, the medical staff would have been happy for you to languish in bed, but now how things have changed, two nurses came in and said to Caroline, we appreciate you are not feeling well, but we are going to get you up as this will help you to clear your chest and stave off any DVT’s.
Caroline was raised from her bed, sat on the edge with her feet dangling on the floor, and like an old Spitfire engine starting from cold, gave a hearty roar.
I won’t proceed to describe anymore gross bits, but it did do the trick.
We walked her to the shower, I could not believe how matted her hair was, just from lying in bed and with all the washing and eventual combing we could not get the birds nest of knots out.
I was back at the hospital on Monday morning, bright an early and she was looking poorly, they had intended to take her off her antibiotic and had given her a large dose which had knocked her sideways again.
Later on in the morning a nurse came in and said if she ticked all the boxes them she would be allowed home today, which excited us.
I popped home to get Caroline a few bits and pieces and was soon on my way back, to see if all her release paper work had been completed.
This paperwork had been done, and she was free to go, so we put her in to her civvies and proceeded to slowly walk her to the outside world.
Caroline managed to wrestle herself in to the truck and we were soon home, I think that Caroline will need a couple of weeks rest and recuperation to get over this, little episode.
I have done some internet research on the appendix, this is how we get to our blog title, “My Wife the Marsupial”
One potential ancestral purpose put forth by Charles Darwin was that the appendix was used for digesting leaves as primates. It may be a vestigial organ, evolutionary baggage of ancient humans that has degraded down to nearly nothing over the course of evolution.
The very long cecum of some herbivorous animals, such as found in the koala, supports this theory.
The koala's cecum enables it to host bacteria that specifically help to breakdown cellulose. Human ancestors may have also relied upon this system when they lived on a diet rich in foliage.
As people began to eat more easily digested foods, they became less reliant on cellulose-rich plants for energy.
I have often seen Carolines eyes light up when we have walked past gum tree’s, so this must be the primordial connection to her Koala ancestry.
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Ali
Ali Watters
Best wishes for Carolines recovery...
hope it's swift and she's back fully recovered and digesting foliage soon.