Endoscopy #2

Nadia built this tower ALL by herself!

Yesterday morning Ian and I left the house at 6:30 to drive to Hershey for his second endoscopy. We checked in at 8:25 and then waited in the waiting room for awhile. We had been told to arrive at 8:30. We then waited a lot longer in the pre-op area. At one point they gave me a really warm blanket for Ian, and thankfully this put him to sleep in my arms as he had been really fussy because he was so hungry as he hadn't eaten since 6:30pm on Sunday night. My friend, Joyce, also arrived during this time span. I hadn't seen her in over a year. She used to teach at the school where I was principal, and she lives about 20 minutes from Hershey. It was nice to be able to visit with her for a few hours. Ian and I went back to the OR around 10:20. In contrast, at CHOP (Exton) Ian was taken to the OR 45 minutes after we arrived (compared to almost 2 hours this time). In preparation for his first 3 surgeries, he was given Versed to make him a bit "loopy" prior to going back to the OR. They said they don't use Versed for endoscopies because the procedure is so short. I asked why not, and they said because the child will wake up in a very angry mood because the medication is meant to be used for a longer procedure. Well that explained why he was so angry when he woke up from his first endoscopy. He was kicking and fighting me and very vexed. He was very calm after his two urological surgeries, but those were much longer. It was nice to have him wake up calm this time (without Versed), but the downside was that they had me carry him to the OR and sit on the operating table and hold him while he had the gas mask on until he fell asleep. That was tough on me emotionally, partly because it took him a lot longer to fall asleep than they said it would.

And of course she loves to knock them down!

When they brought me back, he was asleep. When he woke up I asked if he could have EleCare, and the nurse let me give him 2 sippy cups of EleCare. He was discharged at 11:55. The post-op time was longer at CHOP. Altogether it was a 2.75 hours experience at CHOP compared to 3.5 hours at Hershey. At CHOP they tried to give him clear liquids first. I was glad they let me give him EleCare right away yesterday as he had gone almost 18 hours without anything. We'll get the biopsy results next week.

Each hospital does things a little differently. Geisinger (where his first surgery was done last October) gave each child a stuffed animal, which was nice. They didn't have hospital gowns small enough for Ian. The other three hospitals have had really small hospital gowns. None of the others have given stuffed animals to the kids. Hershey doesn't use Versed like the other three did. CHOP (Exton) had a tube through his nose for anesthesia. They didn't do that yesterday. Hershey was the only one where the nurses didn't try to give him clear liquids (ex. juice or pedialyte) first. The first three wouldn't let a parent come back until the child woke up. Yesterday I was allowed to come back almost as soon as he left the OR. Yesterday was also the only time I carried him to the OR. At the other three hopsitals a nurse carried him to the OR. One thing I did differently yesterday was to purposefully not bring my camera. I took pictures of Ian at the hospital prior to the other three surgeries. I wouldn't say I've gotten accustomed to going through this with him as I still get very nervous, but the "novelty" (that doesn't seem like the right word to use here) has worn off.

Just as each hospital does things a little differently, I am always amazed at the differences between time share resorts. Some differences can be chalked up to the cost of labor. In foreign countries (such as in the Caribbean), the labor is cheaper and I'm sure that's a big part of the reason that we always have received daily maid service in those resorts. Thus far my experience in the US had been that we'd have service (clean towels, changing sheets, etc.) twice a week. This was the first time in 11 years that we didn't have anyone enter our unit during the week we were there. On the other hand, this resort was more generous than most in what they left us with at the start of the week - dishwasher detergent, paper towels, enough laundry detergent to do three loads of laundry, etc. I don't usually do laundry while we're on vacation, but I figured since they supplied the detergent and the machines in our unit, I might as well do a load of laundry and not have as much to do when we returned. I ended up doing two loads in light of Nadia throwing up.

The resort had pedal boats, miniature golf, tennis, playground, surrey bikes, etc. in addition to the swimming pools and water slides. The rest of my family went miniature golfing the day we went to Sea World. Had we known that our Aunt Tina wasn't going to make it down to see us on Wednesday as planned (due to illness), we would have gone to Sea World on Wednesday as that's when Wendy's family went to the Magic Kingdom although by going on different days they were able to save money by borrowing our stroller instead of renting one. Drayton and Susie played some tennis on Friday. I took my kids to the playground on Wednesday, but it was a very brief visit because they were getting filthy due to the sand being wet. I still say I like mulch or recycled tires much better for a playground surface than sand. We didn't have closed toed shoes with us, so we couldn't use the surrey bikes. The pedal boats weren't in use the week we were there due to the water level being too high. So the only feature of the resort that we really took advantage of was the "water park." If you go here, you can click on a link on the right to see a slideshow showing pictures of all the waterslides and such. I was impressed that Nadia did the biggest one (that she called the "black one") many times.