Rain Date

Well, Jordan didn't have surgery yesterday. Before going in to the hospital we had to get approval from the pediatrician. Well, Jordan had and stil has an upper respiratory infection - a.k.a. the sniffles. Not at all unusual for someone who thinks daddy's flip flops taste good. Kids this age are usually sick with something and I wouldn't even mention it except he needs to be perfectly healthy before they put him under. We are trying to get the surgery moved to next week. I'll post a more detailed update as soon as I can get some more info.

You ever heard of the books that say you can teach your kid sign language?

Well here's proof. He doesn't truly understand what he's saying (no difference between 'more' or 'food'). However he does know that when he gives the sign we feed him. That's pretty cool. This one is pretty cool too.

Jordan is so cute when he plays this game, but there is one problem. He can only get two parts rights before he gets confused. We taught him his head, belly, and feet. On any given day he'll remember the head and one other. This particular day was the belly.

We finally found out when the next surgery is going to be. It is a week from today, the day after memorial day. They are going to use an endoscope very similar to the last one they used, but this one will have a laser on it. There is a cyst in the middle of the vocal chords and three cysts right below them in the windpipe. The one in the vocal chords is probably restricing the volume and the other three are acting almost like a whistle. The doctor believes that all are fluid filled cysts which should be able to be excised pretty easily with the laser. As a result Jordan is definitely going to spend Tuesday night in the hospital for monitoring. That will be a good thing considering last time.

Last time Jordan was pretty fussy. He spent all day crying so much that I caved in and gave him a pacifier. It turns out that he was fussing for a reason I never predicted. After shoving the endoscope down his throat he had pretty bad gas. He calmed down after he let out a belch and filled up a pretty mean diaper. Then he took off. I miss the baby. Now, I've got a little toddler who has learned how to run and only speaks 5 words (Mommy, daddy, bye, no, and more). If he can't express himself in those words he doesn't cry. He just says bye and runs away. I can't believe there was a time when I wanted him to learn how to walk.

Operation Recap

Well, we are home. The day went as smoothly as it could have possibly gone and the baby is currently resting in (my) bed. We had to arrive at the hospital by 7:30am which meant we had to leave home by 6:15. We get to the hospital and there is a little mix up with the paperwork but they did us a real solid. We told them that we left the paperwork with a nurse at out previous visit and rather than doubting us and assuming we were lying, they actually looked for the paperwork and found it.

I won't go into the boring details except to say that between 7:30 and the scheduled 9:30 procedure we spent about 90% of the time just waiting. We waited in 3 different roomswith play areas for the kids. I'm sure all parents do this at some point, but I think the urge is even stronger when your kid has something wrong with them. You compare kids. Mentally I tried comparing Jordan developmentally with other kids his size (Who stack blocks better? Who rocks better on the rocking horse?). I also compared behavior (That kid cries more than my kid. The other kid can count to two and my kid can't even say two). I compared size (Jordan is 10% on his height chart but not yet on the weight chart so he's always too skinny). I eventually got bored and played pac man on the video game system. The mama Ali thought I should have let some of the other kids play.

The procedure itself went off very smoothly. The doctor took one of her little video scopes down Jordan's throat to see what is causing the stridor. It turns out that Jordan has 4 cysts in there. The surgeon even showed us the photos (I won't post them). The cysts are clearly restricting the air flow in there and the surgeon said she wants to remove them. She wants to laser them out at a time yet to be determined but certainly before the end of the summer (Thanksgiving day here in FL). She also fixed his tongue which she said would have definitely been a speech impediment.

After the procedure we finally got to see Jordan after he spent 20 minutes in recovery. The recovery area we were in was pretty loud. Every pateint under the age of six was pissed off including my son. The boy hadn't eaten, was in a strange place, still felt the effects of the happy juice, sore, and had an IV in his left hand (that's pretty bad when you're left handed). We knew this going in and agreed to bend the rules for today. Jordan got all the pacifier he wanted. If fact he got more today than the rest of 2009. We even let him try Gatorade even though he's been limited to fruit juice and milk before now. It made little difference. He cried himself to sleep - I think twice. Finally at 1pm the let us out and the nurses reaction were so funny. They were making a big deal for Jordan because he got to leave the hospital. "Yay Jordan! You get to go home!" "I bet your happy to be leaving the hospital huh Jordan?" "Jordan you made it!" The nurses were making a big deal because we had been in the hospital for five and a half hours. If only they knew...

Pre Op Preview

It turns out that I didn't post any pics from Easter. Here is the best video. He still has a bunch of the plastic eggs that he loves to play with. Anyone who has been the parent of a one and a half year old knows better than to use real eggs.

It isn't important to know why I ended up in the box, it's just important to know that he wanted to join me in there. Sometimes a man needs to play with cardboard.

After the cardboard, all of us decided to go for a drive. The mama Ali called shotgun so guess who got to drive?

You know how when you live somplace you never get to do the tourist stuff? New Yorkers never go to the Statue of Liberty. People in DC never visit the Smithsonian after grade school. Well After being home for a year and a half, Jordan drove 6 miles east for his first visit to the beach. He has now been to the beach as many times as he has been to Times Square (1000 miles north).

After the last video, this was the next obvious step. You can see how much he hates bathtime.

Yesterday was our last preparation before Tuesday's procedure. We went to the hospital in Jacksonville to visit the anestesiologist. She gave us a couple of meds to give him this weekend and made sure that we knew what to expect. Anyone who has ever had surgery knows not to eat or drink before hand, but this will be a problem. When you have a kid, you have a schedule. His schedule usually has breakfast by 9am. We can't even give him water within 4 hours of the surgery. We don't know what time it will be, but either we wake him early to get hime there and he gets hungry, or we wakes up at the normal time and he gets hungry. Either way the doctor makes the rules and the parents catch hell. Oh yeah, we also have to give him a breathing treatment before putting him in the car. He hates those.

On Tuesday we will go to the hospital at a time TBD. After changing the lil' tornado into a hospital gown they will time to the OR. They will fix his tongue and place a tube in his throat to see what they can find. They know what is obstructing the airway, but they need to know why. With luck the might be able to fix it right then, but that probably will happen in the future. Then he goes into recovery. If he recovers well we can go home before dinner. Otherwise he may have to stay in the hospital overnight for observation. Personally I want him to stay overnight. Jordan is going to be hungry as hell, mad as a wet hen, and his throat will be as sore as sh!t. I want to people who cause that to happen to deal with the consequences while I relax in an easy chair reading the night away. Like I always say, don't do the crime if you can't change the diapers full of crap.