Pre-Op Plight

Lets begin at the beginning (I apologize in advance this is probably going to be pretty long)

My sister-in-law Sam was kind enough to sleep over the night before so we didn't have to bring Talon with us, since we had to be at Childrens National by 7:30, even though the MRI appointment is at 9. Danny and I got up at 5:30ish, we waited until the very last minute to wake Logan up to head out. We started our journey about 6:00. The drive took a little over an hour. Got there, parked, went up the rad "people movers" and checked in. We walked past the x-ray place to get to the MRI place. I also had to correct a ton of his doctor, insurance, and personal information. I don't know how they manage to keep getting it wrong! Then we were told to go back to the x-ray place so that could be done first. 

So we headed back to the x-ray part of the radiology department. It had to be about 7:45 at that point. It took me, Danny, and a helper (along with multiple tries) to get him to sit properly. We got out of there around 8:45ish and went back over to MRI. From there we met with a nurse, the head of anesthesia, and the anesthesiologist. Pretty basic stuff since we've been through two MRI's before this one. Danny found his perfect chair in the office. Funny stuff :P

Its a comfy recliner with a tv hanging over head with a tray table.....

.....and its purple

So we go with Logan to get put under and he fought the sedation again, not too bad but he was really squirmy. If you ever smelled that stuff you wouldn't want to go near it either. Ick. He was fast asleep and rolled off. Danny and I high tailed it to the cafeteria since we didn't get a chance to eat breakfast, I didn't want to eat in front of bug and refuse him food :( We had a little buzzer alarm to tell us he was in recovery. 

Sleeping peacefully in his recovery room.

He slept a lot longer than the other two times. He also came out of it more alert, probably something to do with the extra rest and maybe the dosage? Who knows. All I know is that I managed to pass out in the chair next to him since they gave us both pre-warmed blankets <3

Snuggled up all tight.

Now that we've spent over 2 hours doing all that we finally got a chance to walk across the hospital and go up to the neurosurgery office. As we walked up there Dr. Magge was walking out and heading to radiology to go look at all of the films. So we just sort of hung out in the waiting space drinking the most awful hospital coffee in the world until he came back up. 

He comes back up and we sit down in his office to begin the actual pre-op appointment. Naturally it could never go that smoothly. Not in our world. Instead we find out that there is some kind of skeletal structural defect that is also causing problems. His skull and his spine are misaligned. Its called an abnormal craniocervical something or other. Thats also causing pressure and potentially a lot of other issues now and in the future. Instead of his skull sitting directly on top of the spine, its sitting to the back. Its easier with a visual but I can't find one, and I want a proper one before I post it here. I honestly don't know a whole lot about this yet, and I won't until I hear more from the doctor and radiologist. 

The head of radiology thought it was important enough to arrange and push for a CT scan as soon as we were finished the pre-op appointment. So we went ahead and finished that up. All of my questions were answered related to the chiari, syringo, surgery, and recovery. I was too taken aback to even come up with a lot of questions regarding this new issue. The syrinx in my opinion looks larger, the doctor didn't measure it and there are a lot of variables to include in that. He did however say that "it definitely didn't get smaller" heh. We are still going ahead with surgery on the 13th, unless we hear that the CT shows something else. I signed the consent form. That doesn't sound super important but it was, it was...so far beyond emotional. 

We left his office and headed down to the radiology wing once more. We tried to stop at the cafeteria to get Logan food but he just wasn't having it, which is odd because he hadn't eaten all day and usually anesthesia makes you hungry. So we go there and they're expecting us. The CT didn't take too long and I'm surprised he cooperated as well as he did. I wish we knew he had to do it earlier so he could still be in his post-sedation-slightlyzombie-mode.

From there we made our way to the lab to get all of the blood work done. It didn't seem like there was a line but it was taking forever. There was this one little girl who screamed for a good 20 minutes while we sat there waiting. I gave up on waiting and left Danny there with Logan. I went on search for the social worker to do our Ronald McDonald House Charities paperwork in the mean time. 

Had to do a little searching to figure out where I needed to go. I still somehow managed to go to the wrong place. When I got there and knocked on this random ladies door, she told me the woman I was looking for had called out sick today. Of course she did, of course! Well this nice lady said that she would put in the referral for me instead. So I sat in her office while she fiddled with the computer and asking me questions and then re-asking them when she figured out her program. She called the lady at RMHC and told us that we had to call them on the 11 to confirm. They do not reserve rooms, it is strictly a first come first serve basis. So technically, we don't know if we have it or not, but we're on the list. 

Honestly I don't even know whats going on with that anymore. My mom only took 3 days off of work which means she can only keep Talon in DC for 2 nights at RMHC. So that means if someone else stays instead I have to discuss that with them. Unless I want Talon to switch off and stay with family/friends closer to home. On top of that I need to arrange a house sitter to keep our crazy friggin' puppy alive. 

Back to the story though. So I got that all squared away (the best its going to get for now anyways) and went back down to meet up with the boys. They weren't at the lab anymore. We had decided when I left that if they weren't there when I got back we'd meet in the cafeteria. Both of our phones were dead by that point, if we didn't set a meeting place we would have been screwed!  

We were in the car for 3 hours and the hospital for 8. It was a long long long long day.

*** 

Also forgot to mention that my in-laws are going to be out of town as of the 15th for a week. Nobody realized the conflicting dates until Debbie left for the airport. *pout* I wish we never had to reschedule, that screwed up so much. I really hope they manage to have a good drive and a good time, they deserve it ♥