Good Bye New York!
(this cool sign was on the toilets' door at the airport)
We finally got flight clearance: the flight back had to be delayed by two weeks since my daughter had to stay five more days at the hospital to recover from a longer than anticipated surgery. Moving the flight was a good move because we ended up in emergency three days after discharge, on the 5th of September, precisely, one day before original departure date.
I had US paramedics coming in our hotel room 😱. I immediately called the ward, and they were already liaising with the emergency room doctor. We arrived at the hospital full speed; I had double click security belt in the ambulance - like for racing cars. They told me how they admired Flying Doctors Services and how they would love to work in Australia where paramedics had longer holidays.
I was holding her head in the pillow to avoid the tarmac shocks.
I was also dead worried about the cost :(
Anyway, they prioritised her straight away, about six people were attending to her in no time; they did not hesitate to comply with the protocol, while, at the same time, checking with the information they had from her hospital file.
In 45mn, we were out.
So damn efficient!
As it turned out, we did not have strong enough medicines as explained in the previous post; this was remedied the following day.
The first few post-hospital days were high care juggling, not for the faint hearted!
As time went by, she recovered one step at a time, and two weeks later, she could go in outings in a wheelchair, then walk a bit, and finally, we could envisage flying back. Planning was not easy.
Despite heavy back head scars that had the potential to worry the airline staff and the airline medical authority that has the right to refuse anyone at the plane gate last minute
(we got hold up like that once at the plane entrance door in Sydney with the halo brace,
despite having a doctor's flight clearance). We could envisage a smoother trip back because there had been no seizure for the last two weeks ... I had a sense that there was some hope because, before the surgery, seizures were almost daily, and we ended up in emergency every ten days.
Nothing was sure though...
Singapore Airline plane ready to take us back home.
Below, my daughter is resting in NY lounge around 6am.
Lying down position is the preferred one after such a surgery.
This time we went through Singapore without a night stopover, we were feeling slightly more confident
(4h only in the lounge area, and it went fine)
Night cup in the plane, so nice.
This was also the month Elizabeth II passed away.
The United Nations mast was lowered in New York for this occasion in her honour for the words she had spoken there:
'In tomorrow's world, we must work together, as hard as ever, if we are truly to be United Nations'
Amen to that!
From NY to SYDNEY, she was mourned by all, but we were not yet to return to a Republic.
Now Prince Charles ... well, not sure his antics qualify him morally to be the head of the Church in his country. As they say 'the fact that there is a highway to hell and only a stairway to heaven says a lot about anticipated traffic'. I am not judging him, and I am not religious, but my understanding of religions make it hard for me to reconcile his doings with being a 'by birth' pillar of religious morality. Incredible what privileges can make you get away with and still be in a position to moralise others. Well, at least, he should be a good influencer on environmental issues, which is much more important in 2022.
We finally arrived in the Kingdom of Australia.
It was so good when the plane touched down.
I did not cry this time, but I did when the plane arrived in New York; this took me by surprise. It was tears of happiness, intense emotion, beyond my mind's comprehension.
The arrival was not super smooth. Luckily, a friend came to collect us, but the airline had lost the wheelchair, and it took them a long time to 'not find it'.
Then, there was the challenge of living at a friend's place with her daughter for a while, while working from home, finishing a thesis, with a child in heavy recovery mode having to call ambulances (3 x times, for expected and suspected light CSF leaks that would resorb in two weeks), and a dog stealing everybody's knickers indiscriminately, glasses, computer mouses, you name them ... carefully placed in heights, as shown below.
Also, the neighbours decided it was time to construct a pool! ... but they were nice about warning us about the noisy bouts, and at the end, we could cope.
This was clearly not the worst we had had to get through.
Eventually, we could do more and more things. Stairs became easier to tackle, and you can see my daughter renovating some furniture in front of my beautiful friend's house where we have been staying. By then, we were the ones making some noises (ahaha:) with the sander!
By the 22nd of October,
two months had gone by since the surgery, and there had been no emergency calls following seizures, no need for any seizure medication either whatsoever.
This is not to say that all was roses and posies. We are still in post-op recovery, and tissue healing is not totally linear, so there are days with and days without.
Chronic pain may have improved but there had never been any promise it would go.
We also had issues with her stomach lining taking the toll from heavy post-op medication, including one presentation to emergency for this reason alone.
We drive there now by ourselves, huge improvement!
We are now back to baseline medication. She should be going to pain management hospital soon for one week so that we can decrease medication further.
We celebrated her birthday that day, calmly, at my friend's place (who was still in Europe)
with my son, who is now back to his engineering studies, and seems happy with this new girlfriend (still not presented to me, boys!)
That afternoon, we went to an auction, and among 18 bidders, I bought a small house in a cool & lively area not far from the city centre, after one gruesome month of intensive (over 100 houses) search. I had been dreaming for a while of a place from which I could walk everywhere, while still be able to have a small garden and enjoy our sub-tropical wildlife. With this house, I can even drop by a coffee place when I walk the dog in the morning, what more would you want?
Et Voilà!
Our new little house, in search of tender care. We'll get the keys mid-November.
There is a good backyard, we'll be able to plant our banana trees, etc. and we have a beautiful jacaranda tree which blooms this time of the year.
I may even be able to put an outdoor ping pong table.
Number 11, like for a new beginning!
Corina 2.0
