Dates clarified

Last week I rambled on in a post about finally having a surgery date.  I thought perhaps I should expand on it a little.

The surgery I'm referring to is the one that was first mentioned as a real possibility back in February 2011 in this post.  We're talking about having Caelan's vocal cords pinned open and his tracheostomy removed.  It's a pretty big surgery that will require him to be intubated and heavily sedated for one week after surgery.  Then we'll have to survive the drug withdrawals the following week.  I'm really hoping that Caelan has outgrown his love for drugs and has no problem kicking the habit this time around.  We can only keep our fingers crossed though.

First things first though, tomorrow Caelan has his pre-op assessement with anesthesiology.  That will be step one.  The appointment is made with the intention of reviewing his chart with us parents before surgery.  However because Caelan's chart is so big they often just ask us a few questions about his past surgery experiences.  They'll take his vitals and make sure he's good and healthy for undergoing surgery.

Second step is that Caelan will have day surgery on August 30th.  It's not really surgery but unfortunately that's the only way Caelan will tolerate a bronchoscopy.  Whenever ENT attempts a scope to look at Caelan's vocal cords it never goes well.  It usually involves me holding him in a bear hug, him holding his breath, him tunring blue, him having a mad poop and him passing out.  (Thought I should clarify those were all HIM!)  Hence, the day surgery.  Another day under anesthetic.  Well worth the peace of mind to confirm that those vocal cords are most definitely not working before we permanently pin them open.

Then it's the big one on September 8th.  The surgery that will change our lives.

We really are trying not to get to excited about it, but it's so hard not too!! 

Who am I kidding??  We are over the moon!!!

At least we now have a date, the worst that can happen is having that date be postponed and rescheduled.  And as brutal as that is, I'm not sure it's much worse than not having a date at all and having the possibility of a surgery looming over you with only a very vague timeline to work with.  You can check back with me on that in a couple weeks and I'm pretty sure that if we've been postponed I'll tell you that it's much, much worse... but the past 6 months of waiting for this much anticipated surgery haven't been a breeze either. 

Ah, thus is life, when you have such an intimate relationship with the halls of CHEO.

Good thing we like rollercoasters!