Health Care, good & not so good

I've had 2 dealings with the health care industry in the last day that couldn't be more different!

Yesterday I took our eldest son (4.5 yrs) to the doctor for his sleep apnoea. He has always been a snorer, but over the last couple of months we have noticed his breathing is completely obstructed for up to 20 secs a time, multiple times each minute. This means he is not getting any oxygen whilst obstructed and so is prevented from going into a deep sleep because he keeps waking up gasping. He's also showing signs of being unusually tired when he wakes up in the morning. Anywayyyyyyy, we got a referral to an ENT consultant, and so begins my whinge....
I dropped the referral in to the ENT doctors office, where his receptionist informed me that, as it (the referral) looked 'standard' it would likely be 6 months before I could get an APPOINTMENT to see the specialist. Apparently the doctor personally evaluates all referrals and decides on who should have an appointment and when. Totally understandable and I realise that there are far more urgent cases than ours, but, 6 MONTHS! It goes to show how totally inadequate our resources for specialist health care are where we live, and why so many people head to the city 2 hrs away for treatment.

My second encounter with the health care industry was today when I took my 11 month old daughter to the Accident & Emergency Dept at our local hospital. She had slipped and put her top 2 teeth through her tongue, leaving a long gaping hole. It had stopped bleeding and she wasn't particularly bothered by it, but I was concerned of the possible infection risk so thought I'd get it checked out.
We went to the Triage nurse desk (1st point of call in A&E) and explained the problem. The nurse took one look at it and said that it wouldn't be sutured as it wasn't severe enough, though she would check with the doctor straight away to save us waiting and to then be told the same thing. 5 mins later another nurse came and had a look at M's tongue and said the same thing. She said that even when a tongue is almost cut through and bits hanging off (her words!) that they are reluctant to suture (for obvious reasons, the tongue is VERY difficult to sew!) but again, she would check with a doctor. I said that I thought that would be the case and not to worry about a doctors opinion. So we left after about 15 minutes total!
How different those 2 experiences were! On one hand I'm told it will be months and months before my son can be seen by a specialist, let alone treated and on the other hand my daughter is seen, assessed and discharged in a public hospital dept within minutes.

School preparation or lack thereof

I can't believe my eldest son starts kindy in 2 weeks! And I also can't believe how unorganised I am for the whole thing. It (being unorganised) is making me feel like a bad mother. I was always going to be one of these mums who has all the 'i' 's dotted and t's crossed well before my baby started school for the first time. So what happened?! Why didn't I get my bum into gear and get everything sorted. I could make all kinds of excuses, but really they're pretty lame. Especially when this is my first ever child embarking on a life changing journey and I've done pretty much nothing. A friend visited recently and was asking W about school. She has young children, one who started kindy last year. W told her all about his new drink bottle and lunch box, so she excitedly asked him what else he has bought for school? New shoes? He shook his head. New books? He shook his head. A new uniform? Again he shook his head. Thankfully she took the cue and stopped asking, saving me further embarrassment.
Ok, well I've got his book list filled (pencils,crayons etc), bought 2 shirts in school colours, got a backpack and grabbed a lunch box & drink bottle on a spur of the moment, but THAT'S IT. I always imagined that I'd take my child on a shopping day out so he could excitedly choose all things needed for school. But no, I grabbed things on a whim whenever I remembered and then showed him later when I got home. Of course, he was SO excited with each presentation of school-related item, but I felt guilty as hell that it was all bought last minute and without ceremony.
Thankfully, W loves the things I've bought him and doesn't realise that they don't match or that he should have been with me to choose them. The innocence of a 4 year old! Maybe when he eventually does the big move to Year One I will be the Mum I always thought I would be.

'To Do' list

We had someone come around today to measure up and give us a quote on having wardrobes built into our bedroom. We've been in this house for 4 years and we STILL don't have proper wardrobe space. I should mention that our house is 98 years old, so there are no 'mod cons' like built-in robes! Needless to say I'm very excited about having built in wardrobes!

Now that we're getting the ball rolling on the wardrobe front, it makes me think about what else needs doing to our 'old girl' (aka house). I'm a bit of a list-maker (what woman isn't though!), so I've started a list...

• Front courtyard paved with recycled brick (this one's in motion, tho slow motion)
• Rear & side fence painted
• Front rooms re-carpeted
• Cupboards built in baby's room
• Whole interior of house re-painted
• Upstairs balustrade installed
• Upstairs bathroom installed
• Carpet and skirting boards fitted upstairs
• Limestone fence built around property

Well, that's a start. I'll check back at the end of the year and see how far we've got on ticking things off! Mind you, I might have to start buying lotto tickets because it aint going to be cheap!