So I can now check "hospital tour" off of my list! We all went to the hospital this morning to meet with Sara, our child life specialist. She did a really great job explaining everything to the kids and letting them know exactly what was going to happen when Evan goes to the hospital. We got to see all of the different rooms we will wait, wait, and wait some more in before, during and after the surgery. We went to the PICU and saw one of the rooms Evan could be staying in. (I guess he will be in the PICU the entire week, instead of moving him around) At the end of our tour, we got to take the kids to the children's playroom, where they had any toy you can imagine, activities for the little ones, and a giant fish tank. The kids got to play with playdoh in there while we spoke more with Sara about what to expect the day of surgery, and that week. She said that the playroom has three supervised activities each day, so if we schedule family visits around one of those times, the kids can play in there while my parents come to visit Evan, etc. She was talking about having Hayden, Ellie, and Jordyn come visit on the second day, but honestly from pictures I've seen online, I still don't think he will be looking too great on day two, and think it better if we wait until day 3 or 4 before the kids see him.
The surgery will be about 4 hours, and we do not get to be there when they put him under general anethesia. I'm not too happy about that. He's gonna be so scared if he's all alone there with people in masks poking him. He won't understand why we aren't there to protect him, and there's no way for me to help him understand. Ugh! Even after he is done, it will be about 1 1/2 hours before we get to see him. While he still has the breathing tube in, we are only allowed to see him for 5 minutes every half hour. Personally I think this is a load of crap. No way am I leaving. If he's in his room, we will hide in the corner so we don't get in the way, but I really don't like that rule, and I'm not promising to follow it! So there. lol
On a happier note, we got a call from the surgeons office today saying that they approved us to stay at The Sharing Place the week of the surgery. The Sharing Place is like a mini hotel on the same grounds as the hospital. They have 18 rooms there with a kitchen per every four rooms, and shared living rooms, playground, etc for families that have kids in the hospital. We didn't think we would be approved because one of their requirements is that you have to live at least 50 miles away, but they approved us anyway! Yay! There was no way I was going to leave Evan for a three hour time period (which is the time it would probably take for me to come back home, do whatever I'm at home for, and drive back). This will be nice for us to take turns to go take a shower each day to keep food supplies and whatnot.
The one question that nobody seems to have an answer to: Can Evan be harmed by blood from the blood transfusion that comes from someone who has had peanuts? (He has the peanut allergy) Anyone know the answer? I'm scared to death that he is going to have an allergic reaction when they do the blood transfusion!
Here are the pics from the tour....
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| This is where we will be waiting for about 6 hours while he is in surgery |
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| The Pediatric Intensive Care Hallway |
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| Inside one of the rooms he could be staying in. |
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| PICU Playroom |
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| Jordyn tryin' on her new hospital gear! |
4 comments:
I thought it was a good tour for the kids and for us. Somehow the waiting part is hovering heavy but not much we can do about that. I am so glad about the sharing place, it's a perfect solution for you two. Night night Evan....love you.
It sounds like Evan will be in good hands on the PICU. Is the sharing place a Ronald MacDonald house? Everything sounds a lot like our experience on the NICU. Funny, how a lot of hospital things are called the same in the US and the Netherlands. Of course you don't want to be there, but at least the people who work there are professionals and they seem to understand what parents are going through. And that's quite a lot! Love y'all!
Praying for you as always. We have never been able to be there when they put our kids out for surgery either, but I was there before Isaac's MRI one time. I prefer not to be there. I will tell you this, it only takes seconds for them to fall asleep. One big cry and they breathe through the mask and they're out. With Isaac's surgery we were offered to give him some juice stuff that is supposed to calm him and it helps putting them to sleep. We passed because Isaac is terrible to give medication too and he would have thrown a fit so we decided to just have them use the mask.
I hope you are able to see him much longer than anticipated. 5 minutes every hour does not sound right. After all he is YOUR child.
Hey, its Lindsay, mom of heart baby Sophia!
Love reading your blog, looks like you had a great hospital tour. Couple things. If you can find a waiting room with a window, you can let the surgeon know where youre sitting and sit in a well lit room (instead of a dungeon). Makes the time go faster. :)
Another thing, we were allowed to hold Sophia and give her Versed and when she was thoroughly loopy, we passed her on to the anesthesiologists loving arms!
It DID take 1.5 hrs to see Sophia post-op, it takes a while to get all the equipment and meds in the tiny room organized but after that we could be in almost 24/7 (so Id question the 5 min)! After the surgery, there were about 8 docs/nurses in the picu room, TIGHT FIT!
Find me on FB, Lindsay Walsh and you can see all the crazy pics of Sophia! It helped us to look at pics of other kids after surgery because its VERY overwhelming when you do get to see them! At UCD, they would call the babies Spaghetti Babies for all the tubes and wires! :)
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