Day Two

This was me and Jack first thing this morning. I don't think I'll share a picture of me and Jack now :-) It's 11pm and I have internet access in the Sleep Lab - yeah! Jack is still awake and I'm freezing in this room. Ahhhh, I think it's going to be a long night.

Our first appointment this morning was with the orthopedic surgeon and he appeared very happy to see Jack. I was a bit apprehensive because this guy is not my favorite doctor and also, we hadn't exactly followed his plan of 6 weeks and 1 year post-op return visits. But, he was very pleasant and said that he was perfectly okay with getting the x-rays from our local orthopedic surgeon. Everything looked great and in his words "you don't need to come back every year just to see me."

Next stop, Same Day Surgery. The bronch went well and everything looked good. Jack has a pristine airway - no granulation tissue, no trauma and no issues, which is remarkable considering how long we have been suctioning his airway. The ENT also put a new tube in one of Jack's ears because the tube was half-way out and on its side. It wasn't on the schedule (or the consent form), but he did it anyway because it needed to be done. (what a guy!)

The ophthalmologist said Jack's eyes are unchanged and there are no new cataracts forming on his lenses. Earlier this year, the Phoenix ophthalmologist had put in his report that Jack's cataracts were returning. It's scary how I can get two completely different opinions on something as obvious as cataracts. I'm going with our St. Louis doc on this one (I know that comes as a surprise to you.)

Jack's bronch and EUA were done by 1pm and my plan was to get out of there by 2:30 or 3pm and head back to Peggy's for a few hours before our overnight stay. Naturally, things didn't go according to my plan. For some reason, everyone thought it would make more sense for us to just go directly to the floor from Same Day Surgery, so they just kept us down there until 5pm. Sounds like a good idea from a logistical standpoint, problem is - I wanted to get the hell out of the hospital for a few hours. Didn't happen. The good part about it was that I got to visit with a lot of my hospital friends who made their way down to SDS to visit with us. The bad thing, I didn't have anything to eat all day except for a stale donut I ate around 10am. (well, that's probably not such a bad thing . . . I could stand to miss a few meals).

It practically took an act of Congress and multiple calls to Jack's neurologist to get us to the sleep study lab. There was confusion on every one's part for a variety of reasons. But, we made it and here we are (still awake and still freezing my arse off.)

I made it clear to the resident who admitted us that we have to be discharged no later than 9:30am because we have an appointment in the eye clinic tomorrow morning. Last time Jack had a sleep study, I just had to leave because the resident was taking his sweet time getting to the floor to sign us off. I don't think we'll run into the same problem this time. Small world encounter - the resident who admitted Jack is from Scottsdale (AZ) and she went to the University of Arizona medical school.

That's the update for today. I really, really appreciate all of you checking in on us and for leaving me comments. It's nice to hear from my friends at the end of a long day.