Surgery Date Set

I called and scheduled Isaiah's shunt surgery...it's set for mid April.  Unless doctors advised otherwise, I wanted to wait until after Easter, after his next Pam treatment, and after his scheduled sleep study.  I already had things worked out for them and didn't want to have to reschedule them if I didn't have to.

I also spoke to Dr. C's PA (physician's assistant).  She answered a lot of my questions that pertain to the shunt itself (but I do also have an appointment scheduled for during Pam to meet with Dr C in person).   At DuPont, there's not multiple surgeons involved in placing the shunt (in some hospitals, placing a shunt like this involves both a neurosurgeon and a pediatric surgeon...if that was the case here, I wanted to talk to the pediatric surgeon.)  Both of Dr. C's PA's will likely be assisting him, and all will be well-versed by the time surgery happens.  

They better be.

Let's distract ourselves from this serious conversation with Isaiah discovering a Vanilla Wafer, shall we?

I'm still nervous, but less about the shunt, and more about the "the big picture" for Isaiah during this surgery...within the conversation, I had to repeat myself about Isaiah's fragility and what it means.... It means no blood pressure cuffs (yes, I know that means he'll have to have an arterial line placed to monitor his blood pressure.  Better than a broken bone due to the cuff repeatedly squeezing his curved bone, amIright?).  It means extubating him can break bones (he will be intubated for surgery, which is standard procedure) so they need to do so carefully.  It means that even just rolling Isaiah can crack a bone so my prepping the staff on positioning him is vital to his all around safety.  It means my (over)involvement is not to step on toes but to ensure my baby's safety.  I trust the DuPont staff because they have (almost) always listened to me.  

It means I need to talk to the anesthesia team.  I will be insistent about this.  I also need to talk to someone from the PICU (PICU stands for pediatric intensive care unit) as that's where he will be post-op.  I WILL NOT go through what I went through after his first surgery.  NO WAY NO HOW NO THANKS.  I have learned since then.  I will be sure that I have a long video of Isaiah's breathing while at home so they can see what his "baseline" breathing looks like... so that his post-op breathing doesn't scare the staff like it did before.  

Vanilla wafers are almost as good as chocolate everything, mom!

Can you tell I have feelings about all of this?

I am so hopeful that all of this worrying that I am doing will be for nothing...just like with the MRI.  For now, I am going to take a deep breath and push it all out of my brain because a stressed mama isn't a fun mama.  When I come up with new questions for my meeting at the end of March (Pam time), I'll write it down and do my best to forget it.  

Time to enjoy life with my wafer-loving boy.

Happy Friday!