Back at Our Home on the Hill

Seriously, we just can't get enough of our home on the hill. What would our life be like without a monthly sleepover at Primary's?

When I got Nathan to the hospital today, the Nurse Practioner was very concerned about Nathan's cold; so concerned that she paged the anethesialogist to come look at Nathan. When he got there, he ABSOLUTELY DID NOT want to have Nathan go into surgery today. It was kinda funny actually. Every anethesialogist that works on Nathan is always a little leery of him. Apparently Tetralogy kids sometimes still wig out in surgery even after their repairs. The obstucted airway issue is also a huge concern. It was actually pretty funny listening the NP who said they were going to cancel the surgery, then the anesthesialogy who came to me and said he was only comfortable with the ear tubes and then the Plastic Surgeon who was saying that no matter what, the surgery was going to be done today. After seen a surgeon and anthesialogist fight? The scene in the surgical waiting room was comical.

Dr. Siddiqi won out; the risk of having Nathan asperate on the pins in the palate prosthesis was greater than the risk of being intubed with a good cold. A lot of extra precautions were taken. Dr. Muntz, the ENT, came in and replaced Nathan's ear tubes. The left ear tube had already fallen out and the right ear tube had come loose and was no longer functioning. Luckily, Nathan's ear canals have grown and so he was able to be given a set of tubes that should last about a year.

The Intern for Dr. Siddiqi came into the waiting room and told me that Dr. Sidiqqi wanted permission to clip the upper gum away from the lip as it was causing Nathan a few problems. I gave them permission and then they also told me I could keep Nathan's old palate device. The Intern said that Dr. Siddiqi said we could just take Nathan home after the surgery. I actually threw a fit and said that because of Nathan's airway issues and that his mouth would be swollen, I wanted him kept overnight for observation as was the original plan. After the operation, Dr. Siddiqi came out and agreed with me that he should be kept overnight.

The post operation area wasn't much fun today. Since Nathan is older and is more aware of things, he was peeved when he woke up. He was given 3 doses Morphine and a dose of Fentanol before he calmed down. I've never seen him come out of an operation that mad! Poor little guy! His cries were so pathetic that he had several nurses besides the one assigned to him come and see this sad little boy! It was easy for everyone to see how much pain he was in.

We weren't transferred into the Infant Surgical Unit until a little after 4:00 p.m. One good thing about Nathan having a cold is that they want him in his own room since its RSV season. I'm glad about it because his roommate has 5 brothers and sister under the age of 7. They were bouncing off the wall when we entered the room. During shift change at 7:00 p.m. they will be transferred to a new room so Nathan doesn't get the other little boy sick! (Hehe, I never was so glad that Nathan was sick with a cold like this before!)

A positive thing about today was that I found out from Dr. Bennett that Nathan has been approved for the Synagis shots. They run about $1000 a shot from what I've been told and have to be given every month during RSV season. I'm elated he'll be getting these since this has been a work in progress with the insurance companies since September.

You know? The day that Nathan was born the on call pediatrician, Dr. Cornish, came in and casually told me that Nathan had a cleft palate. Back then, it was the least of all of the health concerns. This stupid cleft has caused more grief than anyone really told me. It has been a partial cause for the g-tube, ear problems, apnea, swallowing, and more surgical complications than any of Nathan's other "issues". I just have to roll my eyes at the whole thing and remember that hopefully come February things will start to look up for Nathan.