Posts

Showing posts from May, 2004
EXCERPT FROM EMAIL TO FRIENDS These are friends from the kids’ school. Their child has had surgery and treatment for a life-threatening illness, at the Royal Children’s Hospital. They were in the hospital last Tuesday while their son had treatment. "Shane and I were both around the hospital on Tuesday. . . We had a very sad afternoon and evening, but thankfully not because of Rose. A boy who'd had a . . . transplant on the same day as Rose's transplant had been sharing Rose's room. (They keep transplant recipients isolated together because they have the same barrier nursing requirements, etc.) Naturally we'd spent the past nearly 3 weeks in his family's constant company. Lovely folks. . . Sadly, the boy was assessed to be brain-dead on Tuesday, and his family had to go through the harrowing process of withdrawing treatment and saying their goodbyes to him. To be so close to their loss was very intense and humbling. The nurses were bloody amazing. Rose, though s
Image
Today is Rose's first exposure to natural light since transplant day three weeks ago. Her bed has been moved, within Intensive Care, to one of the few rooms with a view. It's a huge morale boost for all of us to have her watching a patch of sky and the branches of a beautiful eucalyptus citriodora (I think). I gather it's also a welcome change for Rosie, after three weeks under fluorescent light all day and night.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Very ill, but banging her special drum on loan from Music Therapy, with another fond favourite from her ward nursing friends.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Rose's hepatologist writes up the necessary pages and pages of drugs on Rose's current chart
Image
A visit from one of Rose's favourite nurses from the ward
Image
EXCERPT FROM MASS EMAIL TO FRIENDS “Hi everyone, Some of you already know that yesterday Rose received the gift of a new liver. She'd been on the waiting list for just four weeks, but her medical team reckon the donor liver came along in the nick of time. Her bleeding was becoming serious, to the point that no matter how many transfusions she had, nothing was really working anymore. We had even gone as far as having me tested for liver donation, a step that Australian transplant teams are very reluctant to take, especially when the donor already has other children. I had passed all the tests, had a CT scan, and was all ready to go through with it if she deteriorated suddenly without a donor organ becoming available. We're so relieved that things didn't need to go that far. We've had a huge couple of days, and we're all tired, but everything's gone beautifully so far. The surprise news is that the surgeons discovered that Rose's pancreas seems to be fine afte