Children's Hospital

On Monday September 12, 2011 we were moved from Ochsner Medical Center to Children's Hospital. Of course it seemed like we waited forever that day for the transfer to happen. Well, we really did wait forever. The two hospitals are only 10 minutes apart, so once the transport team from Children's got there, everything happened pretty quick. This was Parker's first experience outside and his first vehicle ride, ever. Two monumental moments in his life. Well, they are in my opinion at least. When we got to Children's we found out that, although he was in the NICU, he would have his own room. This is definitely a plus. He gets more privacy and we can close his doors so that the other babies and machines don't stress him out too badly. We spent the rest of the afternoon Monday meeting with doctors, nurses, the dialysis team, etc. It seemed like the train of people was never ending- and it still is!

Tuesday morning started bright and early. His nephrology team called us when they were doing rounds, (pretty early) and we headed straight to the hospital. Throughout the day we continued to meet with doctor after doctor. We saw nephrology, urology, cardiology, respiratory, surgery, anesthesia, dialysis and so on and so on. You get the point. It has been a draining couple of days. The final decision was made late in the afternoon that we were going to surgery Wednesday morning and both kidneys were going to be taken out. Once that decision had been made we then had to meet with all of those doctors previously mentioned to sign consents. Personally, I think my signature might be worth something and they aren't telling me.

Wednesday morning Parker was supposed to be taken back at 7:30 a.m. Well, we all know how that goes. Ten thirty rolled around and he was still in the NICU patiently waiting his turn. By 11:00 he was just getting to the O.R. and we were expecting him to be there about 6 hours. We waited around, signed some more consent forms, got some lunch, paced the floors, and read a few magazines. It felt like time was moving as slow as molasses. Then, around 2:00 the urologist came out and said both of Parker's kidneys were out and that he had done much better than they expected. It only took them 3 hours and he did not require any blood transfusions- yet. We still have our fingers crossed on this one. We will see how he does in the next few days. So, this doctors part was done. At this point, the general surgeons are still working on him and putting in his hemodialysis port. He told us that it should only take another 30 minutes before surgery was completely done. Well, once again we know how this works. Almost two hours later and we still haven't heard anything. I'm getting pretty nervous and I'm being fussed because my leg is shaking so fast I'm apparently "moving the whole chair".  It was true, but I couldn't do anything about it. They finally came and got us so that we could go back and see him. Fortunately, he was still back there for good reasons. He was extubated immediately after surgery, which was amazing! We were told that he would be on the ventilator for 2-3 days, so this is a huge step for him! Before surgery he was on 3 liters of oxygen at 30% and now he is on 1 liter of oxygen and it's room air! He has made huge strides and he's fresh out of surgery! Once we got back to the NICU,  his hemodialysis took about 2 hours, so once again we were in the waiting room pacing the floors. Our dialysis manager did let us go and see him in between. She's amazing! When we left him last tonight, he was breathing so much easier, he still hadn't had to be given morphine, and he was resting peacefully. We know today will be worse, because the anesthesia will wear off, but he's already doing so good!