Long Day

The last time I saw 3 o’clock in the morning, it was at the end of the day. Not the case this morning. Alisha and I lumbered out of bed at a quarter to three with only four hours of sleep. The logic was that Everett would sleep most of the way to Dallas and we could be there by nine. Again, not the case. He got a solid hour… maybe. Surprisingly, we did make it all the way and on time (ok, ten minutes late, but impressive nonetheless).

Our seemingly endless day of tests started with checking in at the Cardiology Clinic. The nurse took his height and weight (he’s gained a little bit – getting close to 21 pounds). His oxygen saturations were in the high 80s which is really good for him. I’ll spare you the details about the bag we had to put in his diaper, but needless to say, Everett was not pleased.

The next stop was radiology. It was tough because Alisha held down his legs and I held down his arms while they took the x-rays. He screamed and gave me a look that said, “How could you do this to me?” He always bounces back though. Within minutes he was laughing at the radiologist.

After lunch, we had another appointment with radiology for another test. I’m a little fuzzy on the purpose of the test but it was probably the hardest part of the day. They started an I.V. and injected some kind of fluid to make his heart and lung functions more visible for the scan. It took what felt like two hours to get the I.V. started. As was the theme of the day, Everett was not pleased. The good part is they left the I.V. in so they won’t have to stick him again tomorrow. They have it wrapped up like a little cast, I’ll try to post a picture later on tonight. For the actual test they had to strap him down to a machine that looked kind of like a CT scan. The scan took 20 minutes… a long 20 minutes. For the most part, he behaved pretty well, but it was understandably scary for him.

At this point it was 2:30 and we were due back upstairs in the Clinic. We met with the Nurse Practitioners assigned to his case. They had been touching base with us all day to help us through the process. They were great. Everett absolutely adored them and I think they got pretty attached to him too. Despite all he went through today, he was still smiling at everyone and flirting like he didn’t have a care in the world.

Last thing of the day, we got to meet with his surgeon, Dr. Guleserian (or Dr. G for the phonetically challenged). She did a great job explaining the finer details of the surgery and what we can expect. Alisha and I are very apprehensive but we always feel a little better after we talk to Dr. G. She’s been with us from the beginning, she’s operated on Everett twice, and we trust her with him without any hesitation. It’s a peace of mind that’s worth every mile between here and Little Rock.

It’s been a long day, but despite everything the three of us are in good spirits. We have to be at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning. The surgery is supposed to start at 7:30. I’ll be posting updates throughout the day. Thank you all for your prayers.