Crazy Ordeal Part 1

It all started on Sunday early morning. We decided to skip the morning ride bcos Daddy Lim felt funny - a familiar funny. It turned out to be pneumothorax, something that he had when he was 16.

He had a needling procedure, to withdraw air from his chest cavity. The doctor was happy after 4 hours of observation and sent him home. We thought it was all good and he even had a sumptuous dinner at my brother's place.

On Monday, he had a different medical appointment at the same hospital. We had bfast together after he drove the kids to school and then he made his way to the appointment. The doctor on the way, by the way, asked him to do a chest x-ray. It was then revealed that the right lung had collapsed again, requiring him to be warded for more invasive procedure. He was upset bcos he hadn't had his lunch. Haha.

Fortunately, he managed to find lunch before he was warded. He needed a CT scan and if surgery is required, he would be transferred to NUH, subject to bed availability, bcos that is where the lung experts are. By the time his CT scan was done, it was too late for the transfer. At least I managed to buy him dinner and kept him happy in that sad situation.

Bcos Daddy Lim was worried that it would be deemed as a pre-existing condition, he checked himself into a C class ward. It was a little depressing and gloomy. Sob.

With Daddy Lim warded, I am the official driver to send the kids to school. It wasn't too bad, I didn't bang anything and the kids were safely sent to school. Hohoho. Visiting regulations were tight with the Covid 19 situation and the kids were not allowed to visit him. My role was to keep the family connected and updated with daily pictures.

On Tuesday, he had a transfer when the bed in NUH was finally available. By then, it was already late afternoon. At least he was well fed for bfast and lunch but whether it was delicious or not is a different story altogether. I visited him in NUH in the evening and bought him dinner. He had a couple of x-rays taken and there was no improvements to his condition. A GA surgery was scheduled on Wednesday afternoon 1pm if nothing goes wrong. We were told that he would be using the Emergency Operating Theatre and his surgery is dependent on whether there are more serious and urgent cases. Regardless, he had to start fasting from midnight in prep, delays or not.

On Wednesday, the surgery was delayed as expected. I had wanted to work from the hospital or take a day's leave but Daddy Lim convinced me not to since we don't know if the surgery would proceed as planned.  The bone specialist came by and was worried that his AS would pose problems to the surgery. He had a few more neck x-rays as if it was simply photo taking. Hours dragged by and we had a very hungry man. Hoho.

He was just getting ready for the surgery when I arrived at 5ish. It must be God's timing to allow me to catch him before he proceeded to the OT. We said a quick pray before he was wheeled off.

He was still very hungry and was looking forward to his 1st meal after the surgery. This was all that he had since midnight.

I am not sure if it was bcos the hospital was overloaded with yeh Covid-19 situation or that he was in C ward but information came in very slowly and in bits and pieces. We have no idea how long the surgery will take and ended up looking for most of the information off google. Win already.

Daddy Lim said that the surgery would take about 1 to 2 hours. I was in the visitor lounge and learnt that I could see his progress through the screen.

I decided to feed myself and went back to the lounge after a nice dinner.

It was almost an hour later and I could see that Daddy Lim was being operated on.

When there is so much waiting, the most important is to have a hp with enough battery.

It was a very long wait. I was toggling between watching k drama, playing games and watching YouTube videos. As it crept into the 2nd hour, I was getting more impatient and needed to conserve battery too. It didn't help that the kids were waiting at home and Zaky was whiny, asking me to return home to tuck him to bed.

After like over 3 hours, I could finally see that he was in the Recovery Room.

While I wasn't 100% sure what that means, my guess was that the operation had concluded. It was another good 15 mins before I finally received a call from the nurse. I was told that Daddy Lim's surgery was indeed concluded. He also had a x-ray taken and would be moved back to the ward after the surgeon is happy with the outcome. 

I was given a chance to peep at him. He was conscious and the only thing that he said was how much bloody pain he was in and asked me to ask the nurse if that was normal. The nurse said that he would feel some "discomfort" due to the chest tube that was inserted. *Discomfort* was definitely underrated. 

I finally went home to the kids. The nurse said that they would call me again after the doctor had reviewed the x-ray. It was so physically tiring and emotional draining. I was so glad that it was over. 

Mummy Lim