A different kind of surgery

This last week has seen a change in the surgery that we do. Sadly, all the orthopaedics have finished for now, but general surgery has begun. Yesterday I had several patients going for hernia repairs. Many of them are young little ones.
I had one of a set of twins, James and Moses. James was the 'chubbier' of the two twins, but before their surgery they were playing together so beautifully with our huge yellow exercise ball which the physios use. One of our nurses was telling me that she remembered the twins from screening, The smaller of the two had been quite sick, but Moses was actually looking really well right now.
When tey came in we pushed 2 beds together so Mama could continue to look after both boys in close proximity, so there was a big family set up in the corner of the ward. The boys are 18 months old, but here it is common for Mama's to continue breast feeding for a long time or until another child comes along (they may even continue feeding different aged children!). So we figured, having this set up would make life easier.
They are a funny pair. As part of a premedication, both of the boys were required to have some pain relief and a mild sedative. James, the twin I was looking after went second, and had a little longer for the medication to work. Consequently he had a few minutes desperately trying to sit up and comically rolling over on the bed instead. The things we do!! What was really lovely was that James started to call out for Moses about 10 or so minutes after Moses had gone for his surgery, realising his twin wasn't there.
When they had both returned to the ward they greeted each other with drowsy nudges and the pair settled to sleep wrapped up in their fleece blankets. The patients here often complain of the coldness because of the air conditioning. As the boys came around, Mama did a great job of handling the twins, consoling and feeding the pair of them. Pretty admirable! Their crys were exactly the same whch was a little disconcerting for the other nurse and I (who happens to be called Grace too...!) because we kept looking to see if it was our patient crying!