Off to the Hospital - Round 1

This morning I called the ENT office to find out when the ultrasound procedure was going to be. They were supposed to call me yesterday and I never heard anything. The nurse said she needed to check on it and would call me back. The next half hour was spent talking to the ENT nurse and the pediatric sedation nurse. They were trying to get the kinks worked out and get us scheduled. The called at 8:50am and said we had an appointment at noon. They told me JD couldn’t have anything to eat or drink after 9:00am. The only thing I was allowed to give him for the next 10 minutes was apple juice. Try explaining to a 21-month old that he can’t eat or drink! I took JD to work with me for an hour then we headed to the hospital. We had to get there at 11:00am to get him checked in, the IV started, etc. We got there at 11:00am got checked in and headed to the Pediatric dept. They had a liaison who explained the steps we would go through and helped us better understand the procedure. They started getting JD prepped and asked if he’d already had a CT scan. We told them no. They left the room and came back a few minutes later and explained that they don’t like to take the risk of sedation without knowing for sure there’s something in the lump that needs to be extracted. They decided to do an ultrasound first. We headed downstairs to do the ultrasound and as soon as we entered the radiology department one of the radiologists said that JD needed to be on a stretcher first. The sedation nurse we were with explained he was outpatient and didn’t have a room. The radiologist and nurse then began “arguing” back and forth as to what needed to be done. The radiologist said we had to have a room for JD to “recover” in after the biopsy. They finally worked something out and we went on to the US room. We waited for a few minutes before the tech came in. She said she was going to go ahead and do the US and get that out of the way. JD was PERFECT throughout the US. He sat so well for them! I was so proud! They said they’d never had a 21-month old behave so well! *That’s my boy!* After the US we waited for quite a while for the doctor to come in to do the procedure. While waiting the nurses, sedation team, and US techs were discussing that our specialist’s office had tried to “short-circuit” the system in the way they’d scheduled the procedure. They didn’t go through the proper channels and that’s why this had been such a confusing mess (having to do an extra US, having no bed to recover in, etc). When the doctor finally came in she informed us that there was definitely quite a bit of liquid in the lumps but that it was too thick to be extracted. She said that we needed to wait a few more days for it to thin out and then we’ll have to come back and do this procedure. I was so frustrated with the ENT office. We went through a stressful day all because they tried to take shortcuts. So, we still have no answers but at least we got some information from the doctor at the hospital that really made us feel better. It was nice to get a second opinion and to feel secure in their decision. So now we go back on Friday @ 11:00am and get to go through all this again.
Please continue to pray for all of us. We are trying to remember that GOD is in control of the situation. We know that HE is but it’s hard to keep that in our focus sometimes. It’s so easy to say it when everything’s going great but our faith is being tested right now! We are so thankful for your continued prayers! We aren’t through this yet, so please keep praying! We’ll keep you posted!

In His Hands-
Jeremiah, Crista, & JD