Nichola in Groote Schuur Hospital

Nichola (my severely mentally retarded sister) is now almost 42 years old (11 August 2009). She lives at Woodside Special Care Centre http://www.woodside.org.za/.

Thursday afternoon around 5pm I got a phone call from the home, telling me I needed to come through there as Nicky was having seizures and I needed to get her to hospital. I hit flat panic and phoned my brother, who said he would meet me there. When we got there (through rush hour traffic) Nicky was on the floor in her room, seizing, with everyone just looking down at her.

Morten and I with the help of the nurses manoeuvred Nicky into the back of my car and with Morten driving and me holding her in the recovery position 'flew' through to Groote Schuur. Poor Nicky, she had about 3 further seizures in the car, another as we arrived at the emergency and then again on the doctors bed. By the time poor Ingrid, who had been swimming, arrived, they had manged to stabilise Nicky and were holding her for observation.

So there we were the 3 siblings waiting patiently to hear 'what next'. Waiting in the reception area, along with all the other family members. In our rush to get Nicky into the emergency I was in my socks (taken off to climb into the boot of the car), so got a couple of stares walking aroung in my socks, also being the only white people there. I have to state thought that the service we got at Groote Schuur was excellent, other than long waits between functions, it was very good.

The doctors discovered that she had a urinary tract infection which could possibly have provoked the seizures. Nicky has not had a seizure since she was 8 years old.

After a long wait, we were told they were going to keep her overnight to monitor her. So we all went home at about 10pm, to be back again the following morning at 6am at shift change. With Nicky not being able to talk or understand what anyone is saying, we had to be sure that the new shift knew her history. Much as we told them this, you would still hear them saying [loudly, as though she was deaf] 'now Nichola, we are going to put a drip in your arm, lift it up and hold it still for me please [duhhhhhh - SHE DOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU!!!!!]

Poor old Nicky, she was brilliant, she just lay in the bed banging her teeth together, when they took her for her CAT scan, we again told them the story and they said, yes that OK, they know how to deal with her. But again said to her 'now Nichola we are going to scan you brain, so you must lie very still and not move.' (&^%$#$%^*). We could hear them speaking outside the door and not 20 seconds later they came out and asked me to come in and help. Wanted to know if I was her mother - THE CHEEK!!. Anyways, got her settled and onto the trolley and they eventually taped her head down to keep it still.

After that it was back to the emergency ward, at this stage, Morten had managed to sneak us some Nando's chicken burgers and Kuawi Protein Shake for Nicky, as she had been drinking tons of water, but not really eating anything. Well she demolished that and Mom, she got that usual 'brain freeze' look on her face when she did it a bit too quickly. Finally she was checked into a ward, into a private room, so we only got out of there at 5pm, having been there since 6am. They are very strict about visiting hours and we were told we could only see her again between 3-4pm the following day. We phoned to check on her and were told she was fine, phoned again the morning, same story.

But when the 3 of us got there to visit Nicky, she was beside herself, completely agitated and angry. Just crying and moaning continuously. We took her for a walk down the passage and she literally ran away from us, trying to run down the passage, I think it was just 3 days of lying in the bed and she was fuming and frustrated and WANTED OUT!!!.

Nothing we did could calm her down, so we called for the doctor and decided that it would be best to check her out of the hospital and take her back to Woodside which we did. Nicky is like a baby, routine, routine, routine and of course all of that was out the window. Once we got her into the car, the movement of the car, the sound of the radio all calmed her down and by the time we got to Woodside, she was quite calm. When we left, she was back to her old self and yes I was in my socks again. In our rush we had forgotten to bring her shoes, so she put on mine. . .

Just had to share this beautiful photo (taken with my cell phone). I was standing outside getting some fresh air and this is what I looked out onto. The good Lord above really does look out for us all.

Thank you to Frances for helping me out with the boys once again and I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful brother and sisters, although we might not see each other all that often, in times of need we were all there together. Love you guys.