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...