"I took the opportunity of having a long weekend in
At this point the typical husband starts feeling serious pressure. You just know that once home (I won't detail the contortions necessary to load the car) even the simplest instructions will somehow fail to stop you putting one panel in back to front or something similarly humiliating. However, my wife is great about this because she "didn't marry me with high expectations". Thanks!
Actually, for once, this story has a happy ending as we do have a useful new bookcase which means I am able to be fair and reasonable about IKEA. I think the owner is the richest woman in the world and good on her. She looked at the industry and asked questions other people didn't. Like why does furniture cost so much, is it in the materials which you see or in the storage which is invisible? Does furniture have to start from an existing design and hope it fits into needs people have, or can it start from a known customer problem (like where to store shoes) and then trust people to come up with a reasonable solution? By asking questions and implementing models that now seem obvious, but not previously used, IKEA have created a revolution." Name withheld
I hope we can do a little of the same with Brolly Sheets. Toilet Training does of course have ups and downs (perhaps even more difficult than assembling a bookcase). But in the end, after it is all obvious and working smoothly, it will be worth it.
If you have a story you would like to share, please email us.
MUM's STORY by Janet Beale.
About 6 weeks ago, having worked as normal on a Wednesday, I picked my son Adam up from after school
care at about 5:45 pm. On the way to the car he complained of sorness "down there" but it didn’t seem too sore
so I didn’t put a lot of urgency on it and we went home. Now, being a woman, I am not exactly an expert on that
part of a boys anatomy - but on inspection at home things weren’t quite right (a bit swollen, a bit discoloured,
a bit sore) so, without dinner, at 7:00 pm we were at the Doctor's office for the doctor's last appointment of the
day (privately I was hoping that I was not wasting the doctor's time with something really trivial and routine).
The Doctor poked and prodded, then checked a book - he looked like he wasn't certain...."Although he is a little
young, I think he may have a torsion which mainly appears in 9-19 year olds and generally hurts a lot more - I
think you need to go directly to hospital tonight. not Royal North Shore - its a good hospital, but you need a
children's hospital where they have pediatric surgeons on staff 24 hours a day - and if I am right you will need to
ensure he has had 'nil by mouth'" (i.e. your son may have to have an operation).
OK, so I am getting a little concerned ..... we pay up at the doctors office and then (7:20 pm) off to the children's
hospital we go. In the car I am staying light hearted about it - he of course doesn’t want to go to a hospital.
Fortunately we remembered to bring the teddy bear along. I am telling Adam "What an adventure!...." Randwick Children's hospital is great but the Emergency Dept is always busy and I have spent what seems
like a lot of time in their waiting room on several occasions waiting to see a doctor. Fortunately their waiting
room has some great things to keep little ones busy. And of course that night was busy in ER. But, before the
waiting room toys, first stop is the triage nurse - and of course the triage nurse had a 15 minute queue. Following
the triage assessment, the nurse was doing the usual computer paperwork for us. My son asked about the
number she was putting on the case folder; and I made a joke that it was like a lottery number - when they call
our Number we get to see the doctor. The triage nurse looked me in the eye and said "Well, I guess you won
the lottery tonight - you are going straight through!". At this point I kind of realise that OK this really is a big deal.
Over the next hour we see the ER nurse, the resident, the ER doctor and then a surgeon all in quick succession.
To keep it less frightening we made a game of counting the number of doctors and nurses we were seeing that
night. The surgeon made the mistake of telling Adam that if what he was doing hurts then Adam can hit him
with his teddy bear......My son proceeds to beat the surgeon repeatedly on the head with the teddy bear as the
examination actually does hurt! My son has urine tests and ultrasounds "down there". The ultrasound isn’t
good .... neither the ultrasound technician nor her superior who she called in specially (he is a doctor) can
detect any blood flow to the testes - so there is a torsion – no blood flow means the testes can die within hours.
So, at 11:45 pm my son is having an operation under a general anesthetic having his private parts opened up,
untwisted, tied down so they never twist ever again... and then sewed back up. I of course send an SMS to
various people from the office saying "it is 11:45 pm my son is having an emergency operation - I am not
coming in for the rest of the week".
Fortunately for me, the ER found me some left over kids food so I had half a vegemite and half a jam
sandwich for dinner. The surgery isn’t too long but I have to sit with him in Recovery while he comes out
of it. At 2:00 am Adam is admitted to the ward and I am shown a chair where I can "sleep" (if that is what
you call it) beside his bed.
Due to the residual effects of the anesthetic, Adam vomits most of the morning. Lucky me - I got to eat
most of his hospital breakfast – not exactly yummy food! At lunch time on Thursday we are finally both
back home and I notice I am still wearing the clothes I wore to work the day before! My son typed a recount of his hospital visit for school and it went something like this "I had an operation
on Wednesday - it was fun – I got to stay up until almost midnight. I got to go around the hospital in a bed
with wheels and a wheel chair. We had a competition, we saw 6 doctors, 5 nurses and 1 technician so
Doctors won. I slept through the whole thing. When I woke up my teddy had a bandage on her arm just
like me. I threw up my breakfast - my mum thought that was smart because hospital food is yucky. I
had a tremendous and wonderful time". Now, as a parent I wouldn't describe having your child's private parts opened up in an emergency
surgery at midnight as a "tremendous and wonderful time" but then I am not 6 and it wasn’t my adventure!
Fortunately all is ok now, future generations are not at risk! You may wonder if a torsion is rare? Well, all I know is that there were 3 boys in emergency that night
presenting with the same problem and the boys were successively wheeled in for ultrasounds. I do
not know if the other 2 had the emergency operation. I now know of 1 other parent whose son has
had this - he rolled his eyes and said it was the worst time of his life as a parent. Moral: If you have a boy and his testes are sore, discoloured and/or swollen go to the children's
hospital - time is of the essence if you want grandkids!