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Friday, September 2, 2011

A little head scratch

We went to the hospital  for a follow up xray to make sure Gator didn't have Plural Effusions. These are common in kids who are post Fontan. The good news it that his Xray looked awesome. After chatting with Annie she was concerned about his fevers. With no other symptoms besides a little cough we decided he better have labs to check his cbc and crp. It took to pokes to collect the darn things. While we waited for those to come back Gator had his last stitch removed the stitch was from a chest tube. His incision is closed with Dura-bond so it doesn't have to have anything removed. The crp came back elevated. They like to see it at 4 his was 16. So we needed to do two more blood draws and a urine sample. It took forever to get that peepee, Gator slept in a wagon while I walked him around the hospital. Finally we collected it. It had to be sterile and that is hard for a little boy on oxygen who has a sternal wound that doesn't like to get on and off the potty very much. But there was no other way to catch it. Then it was off to the lab for two more pokes. It was miserable trying to get the samples. Gator would hide his arms behind his back and beg to "please stop!" The lab tech was so patient and really took time to find just the right vein, everything was pretty much shot. He ended up going to the feet. We don't even want to think about the head now that Gator is big. With mommy singing and talking about his WISH, and the Woody Wood Pecker ride we made it through. I was so relieved to be leaving the hospital. I got everything in the car and Gator all situated. I also went to return the wagon. Then came back and checked Gator's oxygen. His tank was empty, I got out the other tank I got and fixed it all, then went to turn it on and it LEAKED loudly... I undid everything and tried again, still leaking. I told Gator we had to go back into the hospital because something was wrong. He immediately started to cry. He was DONE and I really didn't blame him. I still needed to fix my tank issue to I went to the security booth and told them I was here alone with my little son who had had a rough day in the hospital and would not go back in. I needed help because I wasn't sure how to best fix this issue. The security guard radioed for another to help me. She wasn't really sure what to do so she radioed another, Two more came and then the smarty one came out of the ER with a respiratory therapist(who happen to be wheeling out a tank) I am sure we were a sight with four Security guards and the RT, one crazy momma, and a little boy who was not going back in the darn hospital.... Finally, we trouble shooted all we could and realized we had a gauge issue and we needed to go into the hospital and talk with CTS(Cardio thoracic surgery) Bonnie came down. A face we know and love. She helped us page discharge who was in a meeting and could bring us a tank in a little while. Finally she came down with a tank and we headed home. It was a L O N G day. Our appointment was at 8:15 am and we finally got home at 4:30 pm. Glad it is over! Now we have to wait and find out if anything grows out!

1 comment:

Aimee Hardy said...

Poor Gator (and Mom). Sounds like a long, yucky day. Glad you are back home and hopefully he'll get over his bug and be feeling better soon.