I sense a learning

[this title being a reference to Vernon God Little. No disrespect to my mother intended.]

I've been a little quiet this week. I've noticed that bloggers get quiet when really big stuff is happening. Few of us really do expose our bleeding hearts when the bleeding is hardest... perhaps because we rarely bleed alone, and some stuff it just ain't appropriate to share at the time.

So anyway. My little sister (also my only sibling) just nearly pegged it. Early Sunday morning, she awoke in biblical hellfire agony. My mother, who is a nurse and has witnessed much agony, reckoned it was probably her appendix. They took her to hospital. Four hours later they admitted her.

No, said the doctors, her appendix is not grumbling. It's probably a big urinary tract infection. They gave her some morphine and some antibiotics and said she could go home the next day.

Next day, more biblical hellfire agony, so antibiotics clearly not working. Hmm, said the doctors, might be a kidney infection. Scan her! said my mother. No need, said the doctors. More drugs.

Next day, more agony. Three days on morphine and something is clearly still very wrong. Eventually, after much maternal badgering, they scanned her. Well, said the doctors. There's a lot of fluid in her pelvis. It looks like she may have had an ovarian cyst which has burst.

Next day they started keyhole surgery to investigate and clear it up. Instead, they had to open her up and remove her... ruptured appendix. Four days *after* it ruptured. Because of the delay, she also has peritonitis. If we were Americans, we'd sue. Not sure what we'll do instead apart from stand in the corridors and scream 'you utter bastards why didn't you listen to her'?

As Bob Dylan says, sometimes you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

They moved her to a private hospital this morning so she can have some peace and quiet. She can't come home yet because she's still on IV drugs, but they tell me she's sleeping and ok.

joella