…though it was a good 27 hour ordeal to achieve a pin-free toe.
Tuesday morning we rocked up at the medical centre to have the pin removed. The GP tried to block the nerves in half my toe, but it wasn’t enough (as I was experiencing some pain when he cut) so he had to block the whole toe. It took ages to get the toe numb, then the GP started looking for that pin-in-a-toe (similar to needle-in-a-haystack). He couldn’t find it, so he sent me for more x-rays with instructions for the radiologist to mark on my toe where the pin was located. The radiologist simply stuck a metal spot to my toe as a marker on the x-rays for perspective (she wanted to put it on the bandage…how useful would that be once you take the bandage off to cut into the toe??? She actually argued with me over it too!).
Then it was back to the medical centre for yet more anaesthetic and another attempt to find the pin. On the way back I said to Andrew “we’re going to end up at hospital, aren’t we?”. If I had known then what I know now, I would have just gone straight there and avoided a significant amount of pain.
The GP spent ages trying to make sense of the x-rays and finally decided on where to cut after asking his nurse to work out where the pin was. Again he had used extra anaesthetic on my toe, and he had blocked the entire toe again, but the end of my toe didn’t seem fully numb. And guess what….it wasn’t! The GP basically cut a flap of my toe and it was quite painful. He kept apologising, over and over again. He finally admitted defeat, asked the nurse to bandage up my toe, wrote a referral letter and sent me off to the emergency section of the hospital of my choice. Once again he apologised, he was about 2 hours behind schedule for the day, and he told me that he wouldn’t charge me for the day’s activities.
During all this Andrew had been looking after Nathan, and had Toby as well for quite a bit of time. Nathan spent most of the time in the pram since it was the only way he could be managed especially when Andrew had Toby as well….way too many interesting things to touch and play with in a doctor’s surgery. When we told him we had to go and see another doctor, he kept saying over and over again in the car “we’re seeing ANOTHER doctor”.
We got to Emergency at Price of Wales Hospital at around 5:30 pm, and we saw the triage nurse pretty quickly. She said she didn’t like to see young kids in the waiting room for any length of time, and she’d try to find us a room which she managed pretty quickly. I had a drip put in because I was terribly thirsty after not drinking much all day, and a registrar had a chat with me about how they’d go about getting out the pin. He said they’d do another nerve block on the toe, but they’d also put some compression around my thigh (like the bag that gets pumped up when you’re blood pressure is taken) to stop the bleeding. He said that it’s very uncomfortable and can be quite painful, so I’d be sedated a little to help me cope with the pain. That would allow me to get back to Toby the quickest way possible. He couldn’t rule out a general anaesthetic, though, so the whole exercise (including recovery) could be around 4 hours. This was a bit of a problem for us, since Toby feeds regularly and I had no expressed milk for him. They tried to get me a pump from the Womens Hospital (which was right next door) but were unsuccessful. At the time they were telling me this, I was told that there was a surgery booked in for 9 pm and I was scheduled to be next, assuming that nothing more urgent came in (and the reality was that a pin in a toe is about as low as you can get on the priority list. The timing gave Andrew time to drive home and get some bits and pieces including my breast pump.
I wasn’t very successful at expressing milk for Nathan when he was a baby, so I didn’t have any great expectations as I unpacked the pump, given I’d been feeding very frequently all day, it was night, and there wasn’t much time to get some milk. I had a go but got next to no milk, so I waited for Toby to wake up so I could try pumping while he was feeding. That was always the way I got the most milk the most quickly when Nathan was little, and I did manage to get a few millilitres that way but Toby was sleepy and didn’t really get the milk flowing with his sucking. I gave up after about an hour of trying and I had barely 20 ml in the bottle. I felt miserable and worried that Andrew wouldn’t cope for 4 hours at night without me.
Nathan was beside himself with exhaustion, but resisted sleep and cried and screamed when we tried to put him into the pram to go to sleep. It was an awful situation really. He finally did go to sleep in the pram while I rocked it and read aloud from a book at the same time.
Nathan woke up at around midnight and screamed until we got him out of the pram and I cuddled him. He didn’t want me to leave his sight and went back to his wailing scream while I popped to the toilet! Then we were advised that my surgery was cancelled for the night and that they’d try to find me a bed for the night. I told Andrew he should take Nathan home and get some sleep and come back in the morning, but Andrew wanted to find out where I ended up and Nathan started screaming again at the idea of leaving me and going home. So the boys stayed and waited with me and I was finally allowed to have something to eat (a sandwich) as I was starving having not eaten since breakfast.
I was finally moved to a bed on a ward at around 3 am. Andrew and Nathan came with us to see where I was being moved to, and since there weren’t many beds in use that night the nurse kindly offered to make up a bed for Andrew and Nathan as well. I’m really very glad that they didn’t have to drive home, because Andrew was absolutely exhausted and I would have worried about them. There was one bed per little room, so Andrew and Nathan were right next door. I don’t think Andrew got much sleep though, because Nathan didn’t go back to sleep easily and at one stage he wanted the whole bed to himself. I could hear him saying “all mine, all mine”. I thought he was talking about a pillow, but apparently it was the entire bed! Otherwise Toby and I slept well in our bed
I was woken at 6 am to have the drip reconnected and be given antibiotics, and was taken to surgery just after 8 am. We had no warning that I was going to surgery, so we quickly put Toby into the mei tai on Andrew and I said goodbye and good luck! By then I had managed to express nearly 60 ml of milk which seemed like an ok amount to leave. Toby also generally sleeps quite well in the mei tai in the morning if I keep moving, so I was hoping that he would do the same for Andrew.
I was wheeled into surgery after repeating my details a million times to ensure I was me, I’m not allergic to any drugs, and that I was having a foreign body removed from my toe. I recall anaesthetic being put into my toe, but nothing after that until I woke in recovery. I was told that I was wriggling too much so they’d had to knock me out. I asked how long I was going to be there and they said 1hour. I think I snoozed a bit and when I woke up I felt fine. I asked again how long I had to be there, was told 20 minutes. I said I was anxious to get back to my baby, so they said “ok, 5 minutes”. hehe.
I was sheeled back to day surgery where I had spent the night. I was given a bed (after first being taken to one of the comfy chairs that are called ‘beds’, but for some reason they changed their mind, maybe because of the kids). Andrew wasn’t there, and I waited anxiously for him to get back. When he did, he showed up with flowers, a delicious sandwhich, for which I was so very grateful, and two happy kids. Toby had slept most of the morning, and had quite happily drunk about 20 ml of milk after his first little nap. Andrew was so happy that it had gone so well, as he had been absolutely petrified of looking after Toby for a few hours. I totally understand his fear, as his first time alone with Nathan when he was a baby was terrible and he wasn’t looking forward to hours with a screaming baby.
We got home around 2:30 pm, tired but pin-free. Andrew and Nathan had a nap for a couple of hours, and I played with Toby and rested my foot. The hardest part of the previous 2 days was juggling two small children. The hospital didn’t seem to be particularly breastfeeding friendly, but they did try to accommodate my needs when I expressed them. I only had a couple of comments about how it would be ok to give Toby formula, and while I acknowledge that if he was starving and had no other options then I would be more than happy for him to have it, but if there is any chance to provide him with breast milk them obviously that would be preferable and I would do my best to provide it for him. I was advised to express the first feed after the general anaesthetic and discard it, but since I am so terrible at expressing I ignored that advice figuring I’d only remove such a small amount of milk that it wouldn’t make any difference.
It is 4 days later now, and my toe is feeling pretty good considering what it has been through.
This sounds truly hideous! I’m so glad it’s all sorted now – ergh!