Balancing Act

Want to know what sucks? Spending 5 hours at Children's Hospital yesterday. The 30 minutes that it took for Max to calm down after waking up from anesthesia. The PH probe that they insisted they place and then we insisted that they remove (oh, the nurses were pissed, but you really didn't think that we'd make you take it out after I overheard you say "I need all hands on deck to hold him down while I reposition it"??). Meeting the doctors in the hallway outside of the operating room and hearing them say that they found the same inflammation as last time. And then commenting that figuring it out is still "really tricky". Having a verbal little boy who kinda gets what's going on now, and was screaming "Ma-ma, CHOO CHOO!" (he wanted to go back out to the lobby and play with the big train) during most of the pre-op procedure, because he just knew that something really not fun was about to happen. But here's what's great....

This face.

The 37 second conversation that Sean and I had (mostly with our eyes) while he held a screaming, scared little boy and we agreed to ask them to take the ph probe out. Because we're his parents. And that's our job. The minute that the probe, the IV, the heart monitors, and all of the other random cords were out and off, and holding Max on my lap when he sucked down his first bottle in oh, 10 hours.

What else makes the happy list? Bubbles. The bubbles that the Child Life Specialists brought him when we were waiting for his pre-op meds to take effect. Oh glorious 50cent bubbles. You saved the day. And our sweet doctor, who I know loves Max just by how she looks at him and how she treats him. I wanted to hug her for making me trust her so much. She is a kind, smart woman....and a little "Grey's Anatomy", but in a good way. Also on the list? The anesthesiologist who figured out a way to put Max's IV in AFTER he was sedated. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And whoever took the umpteen vials of blood while he was sedated? You rock. Because last time, he came out of surgery with two quarter size bruises, one on each hand. Which means that someone tried too many times, in both hands, before they got a vein. And this time, someone got it first try, one hand only. Thank you for knowing that just because my boy is sedated, he is not yours to practice on. What else is on the happy list? Hugging and loving my beautiful Max, the way his sweet swollen face looked when he woke up last night from a long evening nap, his "I have no recollection of what I just went through this morning, but I am ready to PLAY" attitude. The fact that my husband took the whole day off from work to be with us, when I overheard another dad in the waiting room say "OK, can I go see my client now?".

We might not have enough answers yet, but we have this.....

and Max seems to know exactly where we're going.