One appointment becomes four

This morning We had an appointment at the hospital for our other son. This just so happened to be with the same surgeon who is scheduled to perform Raphael's coming surgery.

We had Raphael with us and at one point the Surgeon stopped and commented on the nasty cough that Raphael has barking. He said that this might be an issue for his surgery next week. When we said that we were happy for Raphael's preferred anaesthetist to make that decision on the day before the surgery the surgeon replied by saying that the anaesthetist in question would be on leave, and would not be back for seven weeks. Annie and I were dumbfounded. We thought that we had already confirmed that Raphael's anaesthetist would be available and so we didn't know what to say. Later the surgeon confirmed for us that particular anaesthetist would definitely not be available.

Due to an administrative error we still had a paediatrician appointment today that should have been cancelled. So we took advantage of this appointment and had a consultation with our paediatrician about what we were going to do. She was a little concerned about his current cold symptoms and so this, mixed with the absence of Raphael's anaesthetist, resulted in her suggesting that we wait until after his anaesthetist is back. Annie and I were relieved with this assessment.

While we waited between the two appointments we made two impromptu appointments with the hospital social worker (to ask about respite options) and dietician (to talk about his weight gain and dietary requirement).