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Harry, aged 3 was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery.
He made a speedy recovery after a long operation but he was having problems understanding what had happened and why he had to use an irrigation catheter to empty his internal bag. Its a lot to take in for a little one and he was afraid the process might hurt. Although it is painless, the nurses had to do it for him and he cried every time.
Having heard of the recent arrival of the Gastronauts, an ingenious colorectal nurse got on the phone to CASA, the local ostomy group, and to her delight they had a little boy Gastronaut with red hair, just like Harry. The staff at the CASA centre rushed Simon the Gastronaut over to meet Harry.
Harry was due another irrigation and was beginning to become tearful. Instead of irrigating Harry, she asked Harry’s help to irrigate Simon, Harry propped himself up in bed, all the while telling Simon to be brave and not to cry, Simon’s puppeteer nurse kept asking Harry questions about the tubing, the container - all the things that had been explained to him by the colorectal nurse. To their surprise little Harry answered all the questions so he had obviously been taking a lot in. He hooked up the catheter to simon (The puppeteer had arranged for a colored dye bag of fluid to be connected unseen by Harry, and when Harry turned the valve, the container filled. Harry clapped with delight and Simon joined in. “See, I told you to be brave, it doesn’t hurt at all does it?” said Harry - he undid all the piping and swabbed the ends clean. And tucked Simon in bed next to him. Harry’s nuses was waiting “Its your turn now Harry, may we do your catheter, so you can show Simon how brave you are?” Harry agreed and the process went smoothly.
The next morning, with Simon still by his side, Harry insisted that Simon be catherised first and then helped the nurse to fix his own tubes into the container, all the while explaining to Harry how he was managng himself. From there it was plain sailing. One hiccup came when Harry was due to go home. The family were also in the process of moving accross Australia to Queensland and the hospital needed Simon for another patient. Tears started to fall, Harry was distraught and because his family were so worried, another Simon was located for the hospital to use and Harry was given his discharge paperwork with Simon and his own paperwork. Harry was in charge.
The move was successfull and Harry sent these pictures of his new home and how he shows his big brother George (6) to do the procedure. While some children are still struggling with the rigours of potty-training, Harry manages his own catheter himself now. (he was potty trained at 18 months!). Even his younger brother Lachie, 13 months old, sits patiently while Harry and Simon talk together explaining everything. George and Lachie are getting a Dr Rusty and a Rik puppet for themselves as Harry thinks Simon may be lonely without them. ”
This story is told with thanks to Harrys mum Jane Jones.
