Day Of Disappointment

After a very long night (only about an hour sleep for Olivia) we arrived at the hospital on time, and prepared for an early start to the surgery.

Unfortunately it was necessary to share with the doctors that Olivia hadn't slept well due to repeated vomiting throughout the night. We are not 100% sure what caused it, but possibilities include post-nasal drip due to allergies and the g-tube irritating her stomach. Dave and I considered taking her to the ER at Children's to have them help her stop vomiting, but it did stop on its own around 4:30.

This disclosure concerned the surgeon, and he took a look at her labs that were done yesterday. He saw that her white blood count was a little high and, although neither one by itself would warrant rescheduling the surgery, together it pushed Dr. Oetgen out of his comfort zone.

He explained that kids with CP are at a higher risk for complications from surgery anyway, and to increase that risk with a possible virus or infection of some sort would just not be wise. We were very dissapointed, although we expected it was a very real possibility when we left this morning. Before we left he ordered a chest x-ray to rule out aspiration/pneumonia, and it was clear.

So the new date is Monday, March 12. We will need to arrive at 7:30 again, and the procedure will start around 9:30. She will be in the OR until about 6 p.m. I can only imagine how long that day will be -- today we arrived back at our home by 1 p.m. and it seemed like it was early evening.

One good thing, we avoided a huge traffic mess by taking an alternate route. My friend, also coming home from Children's, called to tell me to avoid our normal route, but we were already almost home.

So the "another thing" continues... Still no closure. Olivia will have to redo her lab work, and obviously we hope she's healthy for the surgery on the 12th.

This is surely a very long journey for her. I am thankful that she has a few more nights to get her rest. We are not overscheduled these next few weeks, and I will ensure it stays that way.