A TRIP TO HOSPITAL

I can still remember as a child being admitted to hospital to have my tonsils and adenoids removed. I was about four years old at the time and the memory is a very vivid one.

In those days it was it was a very different scenario to an admission for the same procedure today. In today’s scenario you would be admitted today and home tomorrow. Back then you were admitted for four or five days. It was also not encouraged for parents to visit whilst you were a patient as it is today when parents stay with their child around the clock.

I don’t recall having any preparation for my visit to the Mater. On the appointed morning I was taken by my parents to the hospital. Dad would not have had a car back then so I am not really sure how we got there. What I do remember was being dressed in my pyjamas and dressing gown. My dressing gown was pale green chenille with yellow and pink flowers on the bottom. Mum tells me that she made this for me by cutting down one of her old dressing gowns as was the practice at the time.

I remember waiting in the waiting room where there was a very large grandfather type clock which I found fascinating. My name was called and I was told to go with the nice lady. Being the good little girl I was, (back then) off I went without a backward glance to where Mum and Dad were waiting. They told me however that they would be waiting right there for me.

.

I remember being on a trolley and being wheeled into theatre (although I did not know this was what was happening at the time) and a doctor asking me what my favourite thing was and I told him fairies. He asked me what colour fairies I liked and I told him pink and purple. He then told me he was going to help me go to sleep and I would dream about the fairies. There was no explanation as there would be today about a mask being put over my face. I told him I was not sleepy and he said I would go to sleep very soon because he was magic. I remember the mask being placed over my face and floating away. I really do think I dreamt about the fairies.

I woke up in a strange bed with someone else pyjamas on and I felt like someone had lit a fire in my throat. I was not allowed out of bed for the next few days and was fed on jelly, junket and foul tasting broth.

I remember trying to ask were was my mum and being told not to talk. Now those of you who know me well will realise that this was a massive challenge.

After a few days I was finally told I would be going home. Now I expected to be taken back to the room with the grandfather clock but I was taken in a wheelchair to a waiting ambulance to be taken home. There were two or three other passengers sitting in the back of the ambulance and when they had been dropped off the driver asked me if I wanted to hear the siren. Well it had all been worth it as we came along the streets near my home with the siren ringing. I say ringing because it was a bell clanging as we approached home.

Convalescence followed for a few weeks after this and I remember home made jelly and mum’s home made ice cream (Oh what a treat).