Oh... I forgot about the time I had an appendectomy... normally this type of surgery is fairly routine... but that is not the interesting part of this story... not by a long shot.
This all happened when we lived in London, and Mrs. CG was VERY pregnant with our eldest daughter. I had cramping pains for awhile that day so I went to bed early and woke up at about 1:00 am in excruciating pain. Mrs. CG said that's it, I'm taking you to Emerg! Normally I would have resisted, but the pain was terrible, so I gave in to her insistence. Well the closest hospital was only a few KM's away... so here we have a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman taking her husband to a hospital at 1:00 am... This hospital did not have a maternity ward, so when we arrived, they took one look at us and said, umm, sorry folks- but you're in the wrong place- we don't have a maternity ward here- you have to go to Victoria or St. Joes... so Mrs. CG explains the situation and they make the usual jokes about phantom labour pains etc, and sit us in the waiting room until a doctor could see me. But in this particular instance the pain wasn't "localized" so the doctor just figured I needed to "take a dump", gave me a dose of "something to help" and sent us home...
We left and went back home... and I tried to go back to sleep... but no go... the pain just got worse, so Mrs. CG packed me up again, made arrangements for the neighbour to watch our 2 1/2 yr old son, and back to the hospital we go at about 5:00 am... There must have been a shift change, since fortunately, this time we saw a different doctor and she admitted me right away for observation & scheduled an exploratory surgery for the next morning at 10:00 am... Mrs. CG stuck around until about 7:30 but then had to go as the neighbour that was looking after our son had to get ready for work... So on her way home from the hospital... you guessed it, she goes into labour!
She somehow manages to pick up our son, calls her friend to look after him, and she drives herself to Victoria Hospital to have our daughter! Fortunately another friend was able to meet her there so she wouldn't have to go through the process alone! So... back to my predicament... I had NO IDEA Mrs CG was about to give birth, I went into surgery at about 10:00 am in one hospital, and Mrs. CG delivered our daughter at about 10:05... it wasn't until later in the day that the doctor found that my appendix burst and had they waited any longer, Mrs. CG would have been a mother and a widow at about the same time!
I saw my daughter for the first time when she came to see me while I was recovering from my surgery a few days later.
This all happened when we lived in London, and Mrs. CG was VERY pregnant with our eldest daughter. I had cramping pains for awhile that day so I went to bed early and woke up at about 1:00 am in excruciating pain. Mrs. CG said that's it, I'm taking you to Emerg! Normally I would have resisted, but the pain was terrible, so I gave in to her insistence. Well the closest hospital was only a few KM's away... so here we have a 9 1/2 month pregnant woman taking her husband to a hospital at 1:00 am... This hospital did not have a maternity ward, so when we arrived, they took one look at us and said, umm, sorry folks- but you're in the wrong place- we don't have a maternity ward here- you have to go to Victoria or St. Joes... so Mrs. CG explains the situation and they make the usual jokes about phantom labour pains etc, and sit us in the waiting room until a doctor could see me. But in this particular instance the pain wasn't "localized" so the doctor just figured I needed to "take a dump", gave me a dose of "something to help" and sent us home...
We left and went back home... and I tried to go back to sleep... but no go... the pain just got worse, so Mrs. CG packed me up again, made arrangements for the neighbour to watch our 2 1/2 yr old son, and back to the hospital we go at about 5:00 am... There must have been a shift change, since fortunately, this time we saw a different doctor and she admitted me right away for observation & scheduled an exploratory surgery for the next morning at 10:00 am... Mrs. CG stuck around until about 7:30 but then had to go as the neighbour that was looking after our son had to get ready for work... So on her way home from the hospital... you guessed it, she goes into labour!
She somehow manages to pick up our son, calls her friend to look after him, and she drives herself to Victoria Hospital to have our daughter! Fortunately another friend was able to meet her there so she wouldn't have to go through the process alone! So... back to my predicament... I had NO IDEA Mrs CG was about to give birth, I went into surgery at about 10:00 am in one hospital, and Mrs. CG delivered our daughter at about 10:05... it wasn't until later in the day that the doctor found that my appendix burst and had they waited any longer, Mrs. CG would have been a mother and a widow at about the same time!
I saw my daughter for the first time when she came to see me while I was recovering from my surgery a few days later.
