A welcome phone call

I couldn’t lift the phone quickly enough when it rang at 7.30 this morning; Gemma was flying back from Dubai during the night and it was great to hear that she’d landed safely and soundly back in London. She’s been suffering from tonsillitis and a pretty severe reaction to the antibiotics she’d been given to treat her throat. Fortunately, this all happened during the last couple of days of her holiday, rather than spoil the beginning, but unfortunately it meant she had a pretty uncomfortable flight home to look forward to. I only spoke to her briefly this morning, but it sounds as if the flight wasn’t too bad and she was feeling a lot better. She was with Tola, her lovely boyfriend, so I knew she was in good hands, but it was still a relief to hear that she was OK.

Gemma’s had problems with her ears, nose and throat since she was about 18 months old. I feel pretty guilty that I didn’t fight harder with the medical profession when she was a little girl and insist that her adenoids and tonsils be removed. I had mine taken out when I was little, but nowadays there's a reluctance to operate on a child for anything that's not deemed absolutely essential. I’m 100% convinced that Gemma wouldn’t have suffered from all the problems she’s had over the years if one of the many Consultants that we’ve dealt with had whipped out, what I consider to be,  the root of these problems. She’s had umpteen sets of grommets and t-tubes inserted in her ears, a nasal re-alignment operation, various ‘scraping’ procedures, far too many ear infections which have resulted in her having a perforated ear drum and being partially deaf in one ear and tonsillitis more times than I can count. None of these issues are life-threatening, and we thank our lucky stars for that, but she has had a pretty torrid time and I am convinced that the operation should have been categorised as essential.

Gemma doesn’t make a fuss about all that stuff, and it certainly hasn’t held her back from enjoying her very active, full and exciting life; but it can be a nuisance and can sometimes spoil things – such as the last day of a fabulous trip to Dubai! As the tonsillitis has occurred more than five times during this past year, I’m pretty sure that she’ll be offered, at long last, the opportunity to have her tonsils removed. It’s the last thing that Gemma will want to do as a busy 19 year old student, but I do think she'll have to take the opportunity and find a gap in her busy diary to fit it in! If only her mother had stood up to the medical profession years ago; Gemma would have had the operation when she was little, probably had a couple of weeks off school, been pampered with ice cream and cuddles at home and then probably not had umpteen holidays, trips and other such occasions disrupted over the past umpteen years by her many ear, nose and throat infections.

Still, I must admit, there’s a little bit of me that’s quite looking forward to being able to keep Gemma at home for a wee while after the operation, pamper her with ice cream and cuddles then watch her, hopefully, be able to enjoy umpteen holidays, trips and other such occasions without a horrible ear, nose or throat-based interruption to spoil them!