Eek – it’s been a bit quiet on the blog front lately, sorry! Contrary to popular opinion I have not been in hiding since the $250 Cookie Recipe debacle (turned out it was a world famous email scam, you wait until I see that Donna! Am I the only person in existence not to have known about it?) On the contrary – in stark contrast to yummy cookies, we have been eating hospital food while Ali’s troublesome tonsils were being removed. Tell you what, I have been soooo grateful for my Simple Savings knowledge over the last few days as we have prepared for his operation. The multitude of money and time saving hints stored in my brain proved indispensable as I baked, cooked, froze, cleaned – and even paid the bills the SS way in order to have everything and everyone well looked after on Tuesday - ‘the big day’. Yes, my youngest son is now a ‘tonsil-free zone’! The surgeon had never seen anyone so excited at the prospect of having a couple of useless body parts removed before, although I think his mindset had altered somewhat by the time he woke up. As Ali indignantly told the nurse post-op, ‘I am never, EVER having my tonsils out again!’
He also said he didn’t want his adenoids out (or rather ‘those adedadedadadoid things’) and was rather annoyed to find they had already gone. He wasn’t the only one who was a little perturbed about that particular part – you see I have the most dreadful phobia about nosebleeds. I have no idea why; I could sit in on a heart transplant and not be remotely disconcerted, but nosebleeds I just cannot stomach. It’s so bad that the boys think it is hilarious and are always feigning them in order to try and make me faint. Unfortunately on this occasion it was for real and with Ali hardly being in the mood to play the comedian, there I was staunchly mopping him up and doing my best to comfort the wee patient without losing my breakfast. However even my best efforts didn’t work and before long I was swiftly being escorted out of the recovery room before I keeled over completely. Fantastic support Penny, well done. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to drag my own long-suffering mother along for moral support and she calmly took my place until Ali’s poor little swollen nose had subsided.
As far as hospital stays go, ours wasn’t an expensive experience. Parking was free and so were our meals. The expensive part was keeping Mum and I occupied with magazines and the huge stash of ice cream and all the other ‘throat-friendly’ food and drink brought in for Ali’s return home! Of course, there is the small matter of having to cough up $1000 now, but I was informed that finance plans are available, which made me chuckle to think of ‘hire purchase tonsils’ or ‘buy now, pay later’ surgery. We still haven’t got around to getting health insurance yet, but the way our family is going I really think we should consider it! So, that’s another drama out of the way and I am eternally grateful to SS ‘regular’ Angela C for warning me in advance of her own experience with her son the week before. In the meantime, things are very quiet! Ali and I continue to work on our ‘sign language’ (I always seem to misinterpret him which doesn’t go down well) and he carries a notebook and pen wherever he goes. Thank goodness hospital stays for tonsillectomies are so much shorter these days – I found out during our time there that the same surgeon also performs plastic surgery on noses and it seemed that every patient following Ali was being ‘made over’ – good grief, all those nosebleeds were far more than I could handle!
PS – A big thank you to everyone who has sent in their kind messages. This is just a quick update as my brain needs to get back in ‘blog mode’ but will write more tomorrow, I promise!
