If your child has subglottic stenosis, you learn the airport-style art of packing very quickly. Pre-op at 6am, dilation procedures, overnight observation, follow-up scopes — the admissions blur together, and the one time I forgot the bag was the one time I needed everything in it.
So now we keep a go-bag permanently packed by the front door, refreshed after every stay. This is the list I wish someone had handed me in the beginning, written the way a friend would write it — not a hospital brochure.
The medical essentials
- Your log and reports — printed or on your phone. The admitting team wants a baseline: recent oxygen readings, stridor trends, what's normal for your child.
- A list of medications with exact doses and times, including the 'as needed' ones. Nurses will ask three separate times; having it written once saves everyone.
- Your child's pulse oximeter if you have one — hospital units are great, but the one you know how to read at 3am is better.
- Saline, suction supplies, or anything your child's routine depends on. Never assume the ward stocks your exact brand.
- A copy of recent letters or scope reports from your ENT [Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist] — new shifts and locums read these before they read you.
The comfort kit (theirs and yours)
Hospitals are clinical; children are not. The things that make a strange room survivable fit in one small pouch.
- Two comfort items from home — one to use, one to lose. Armani's soft toy has been through more scopes than most residents.
- A familiar cup, bib, and snack stash. Post-procedure kids eat on their own strange schedule, and wards run out of the good crackers at midnight.
- Their own pajamas and a favourite blanket. Anything that smells like home helps after anesthetic.
- For you: phone charger with a long cable (ward plugs are never where you need them), a refillable water bottle, and a genuinely comfortable sweater. You will be cold, and you will not be leaving to get a jumper.
- Earplugs or headphones and a downloaded show. Some nights, surviving means tuning out the monitors for twenty minutes.
The paperwork that saves hours
The admin side of a medical admission is its own condition. Keep a clear plastic sleeve with copies of the essentials, and update it after every stay.
- Medical aid or insurance details, and the pre-authorization number for this admission if you have one.
- ID documents and your child's birth certificate if your hospital requires them for admission.
- A one-page 'about my child' sheet: diagnosis, airway history, current medications, allergies, and what a bad day looks like for her versus a normal day. Hand this to every new nurse — it does the introduction for you.
- A small notebook and pen. You will be given instructions you'll want to remember while your brain is elsewhere.
One last thing
The bag matters less than what it represents: you, walking into a hard day with the information your child's team needs and one small piece of home under your arm. Pack it once, keep it by the door, and let it do the worrying for you.
And between stays, keep logging. The record you build on ordinary days is exactly what makes the extraordinary days shorter, calmer, and better planned.