Today is not going quite how I imagined.
Somehow with everything that's happened today, it feels like it should be Thursday or later in the week.
I got back to see Micah in the recovery area just after noon. He was cranky and combative coming out of the anesthesia, was hating the giant gauze head wrap dressing, and just out of sorts. Fortunately he settled down a little bit with being held, and a small hit of morphine eventually got him to really settle down and fall asleep on my lap. Once he awoke he was ready to tank up on some apple juice, eat a few animal crackers and a jar of baby apple sauce. Then the nurse could take out his IV and we could get ready to go home.
We had a stroller along with us, so we didn't need a wheelchair to take us out, I just signed on the bottom line, picked up a token for parking garage, and hit the "Home" button on the GPS. Micah slept most of the way, except for a brief period when he woke up and whined about his dressing being too tight and then fell right back to sleep again.
After I unloaded the car, I unloaded Micah onto the sofa, and he went back to sleep until dinner time.
He awoke to eat steamed dumplings and drink apple juice. And just when we were getting complacent, thinking that all was well, Micah yanked he dressing down around his neck, giving us a peak at the new ear canal.
And me without a roll of gauze in the house or even in my bag out in the car. I'd used up the last of what I had on a house call a few weeks ago. So Thea and I made a quick run to CVS, and once we were back home, Steve held Micah, Thea fed him M&Ms and I re-wrapped his head using both the old and the new dressing.
One of the nurse called to the OR, and the estimate is that Micah will come out of surgery at 11:45 or so, right according to schedule. The time has flown by, mostly because I don't have the ability to concentrate on one thing for too long, so I've been bopping around on the computer, reading Pat Conroy's "South of Broad", drinking the unrefrigerated Coke I had in my purse, eating a banana-nut muffin the nurse offered (what do hospital's do about people with nut allergies? I was sort of shocked that there would be an Otis Spunkmyer banana nut muffin anywhere in a place like this.)
It's a quiet day around here, I asked the nurse and she said they usually have 30+ patients scheduled per day, but today there are only 16.
I'm glad I didn't save the NY Times crossword as I had originally wanted to do, I would have failed miserably at getting it done. The homefront had better plan on getting take-out for dinner tonight, I'm not going to be in any mood or any energy level to make dinner.
The OR called with an update, all is going well and just as expected. Above is a video taken this morning while we were waiting, I had a couple of others, but I let Micah play with the Flip and he managed to delete them.
What does a parent whose child is in the OR do with three hours or more of free time and a laptop? What else, update the blog.
Micah woke up at 3:00 am to tell me that he wanted to go home, and then promptly went right back to sleep. I, on the other hand, was awake for the right of the night. The 5:00 am wake up call was totally unnecessary, I was up, showered, packed up all of our stuff and woke up Micah. We were on our way to the Englewood Hospital by a few minutes before 6 :00 am and checked in at the Ambulatory Surgical Center early.
The nurse in the pediatric section called us back at 7:30 or so, paperwork for her, paperwork for the anesthesiologists, a quick chat with the surgeon. There was a nice playroom in this area so Micah got to empty shelves of just about every toy he could reach.
And then it was time for the show to get on the road. He didn't want to change into a gown, so Bunny Bear got to do it for him. I got a pair of scrubs to throw over my clothes (I'm flattered that they chose the size they did, but I looked like a green sausage), and Micah got to drive the car back to the OR.
This is when he really started to realize that things were happening that he wasn't all too keen about. Bunny Bear got an anesthesia mask, we tried to pass it off as "just like Daddy's mask (CPAP)", but he was starting to get cringy. Didn't like the EKG leads stuck onto his chest, wasn't thrilled about the pulse oximetry stuck on his thumb.
Since he was on the verge of crying (and inhaling more rapidly than his normal breathing), he dropped like stone after the first few breaths of the anesthesia gas. I got shuttled out back to the room where he'll be after surgery, and then it really smacked me over the head. I had just left my baby in a room where someone was going to be putting a hole in his head.
They have my cell phone and said that I could go out to the cafeteria, but I'm staying put for now.
Nothing by mouth. Midnight has come and gone, so we're into the final hours before surgery. Micah chattered all the way to Newark Airport, and then slept for the last part of the trip to the Marriott. Of all the stuff I've told him about tomorrow, seeing Dr. Choe again, going to the hospital, big bandage on the head, I sort of neglected to mention that breakfast was not part of the game plan, and this is a kid who eats within 15 to 20 minutes of getting up on weekdays. I've already emptied the milk that he had for the car so I don't take my eyes off of him and he downs it. I am going NPO as a show of solidarity, but I still feel bad for not prepping him.
The hotel had PPV PBS (pay-per-view PBS), so I plunked Micah on the bed and put on Curious George so I could organize a bit. We read both our Llama, llama books and I sung just about everyone Micah knows to sleep before he finally fell asleep. It took a bit of doing to get the computer to cooperate, but eventually I got my charts done and most of the mail read.
So I am officially calling it a night and packing up the laptop. Atresia repair #1, here we come.
Precious little, as it were. Monday I got a signature-required package notice. Tuesday at around dinnertime, I got on the computer, sent a message to UPS, paid a $4 and request the package be redirected the package to my work address. The computer said it would be delivered Wednesday. No package on Wednesday, so I called the toll-free number, spoke with a customer service person and was told that the re-direct information came in too, late so it would be delivered the following day.
Nothing on Thursday at the office, and a FINAL ATTEMPT NOTICE on the door at home. And when I called I was told that they had tried home, and at my office. 5:01 pm at the office. So now I have until the 27th to pick the package up at the UPS facility in Hamilton, as if the next few days have abundant spare time to be picking up a package that should have rightly been delivered during working hours.
I am going to call those losers at UPS and get that $4. It's the principle.
Brown can do NOTHING for me. That is why I use the US Postal Service, thank you very much.
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