Sarah's Story

From birth I have had a heart disorder, I have a hole in my heart and my pulmonary arteries are much too small. During my life I have had many operations, one major one when I was 3 months old and lots of smaller ones. I'm going to write about the second major operation I had.

As I go for check-ups every 6 months my doctor was sure that I needed to have an operation sometime during my third year in junior school. I can't remember exactly when he told me that I'd be having open-heart surgery, but he told me that I'd receive a letter giving me the exact date.

When the letter arrived it said I'd be going in, in April. There was a lot to do between getting the letter and April.

I was having my operation at Alder Hey Children's Hospital in Liverpool. When I arrived a nice nurse showed me to my bed. As I was one of the oldest children on the ward I'd been given a bed in a little room all on my own. The room was quite nice, I had my own television and there was a window from which you could see the entrance to the hospital. Later that day, when I'd unpacked and settled in, the hospital teacher came to see me. She gave me some worksheets to do, they were really easy, I finished them quickly. When she left she said if I wanted anything I just had to ask. That first day went really slowly as we had nothing to do. We met a little girl, who was also in for an operation, she was called Amy. She had Downs syndrome. Over the next few days she was very friendly.

The next day, Tuesday, I had the usual tests I have when I go to hospital. I had an E.C.G., which measures my heart beat, an X-ray and a scan. The surgeon, who was doing my operation, came to talk to me. She was a really nice lady, she made sure that I understood everything that was going to happen to me during my operation. Her name was Miss McKay, she was a large jolly lady who was a very talented and dedicated surgeon. Often at night you would see her on the ward reassuring worried parents and checking on her patients' progress. While we were talking to her, Mum asked when we would be seeing the anaesthetist as I am very sick after anaesthetics. Miss McKay said he would see us later that day or the next morning before my operation. After she made sure we had no worries she went on her way.
Quite a lot later, probably after tea, a nurse from intensive-care came to talk to me so I knew what to expect as after my operation I was going to wake up there. She showed me some pictures, while I was looking at them my sister came with my Auntie, Uncle and cousin. After I finished looking at the pictures the nurse said we could go and have a walk around intensive-care so we knew what it was like. It was quite scary, there were machines everywhere and they were all bleeping and lights were flashing.

The thing I remember most was that there was such an eerie silence except, as 1 said before, for the bleeps from the machines. We made our way back to the ward where my visitors were waiting. My sister had brought me a white polar bear teddy. They stayed a long time talking, watching telly, when it was time to go I walked with them to the top of the stairs just outside the ward. I then went back to my room and waited to wave them goodbye through the window. I then got ready for bed and my Mum read me a story. When Mum finished the story she sat with me for a while. At this point I was anxious and scared, I got quite upset, Mum comforted me and then my Dad came back and gave me a big hug to calm me down.

The next morning I woke up fairly early and while the rest of the ward was having breakfast and because I couldn't have anything to eat before my op, my Mum took me for a bath. When I'd had my bath the anaesthetist came to talk to me. Not long after that a nurse came and put some special cream on my hands that numbed them so the injection the anaesthetist was to give me didn't hurt. As my operation was scheduled for around dinner time I had the whole morning to wait. The little girl I mentioned before, Amy, was due to have her operation before mine in the early morning.

When it became time for Amy to go to the operating theatre there was a call made to the nurses' office, saying Amy's operation had been cancelled as a boy had been rushed in to have an emergency operation. This operation ran over into the time I was supposed to go down for my operation so mine was a hour or so late. When the porters eventually came to take me it was 1-30pm. I remember this vividly as Neighbours was just about to start and I was really mad, because I thought I'd waited long enough so I didn't see that another 20 minutes would matter. I can't remember much of what happened after that.

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