Amnesia for a day

"What did you do today Harrison?"

"Played toys, school"

I'm so grateful that Harrison has no memory of yesterday's events.  We started our morning with no breakfast, doctor's orders.  He didn't understand why it was ok for everyone else to have something and he could only have apple juice.  He begged for a snack, so I took him to Target to buy him a breakfast popsicle.  Surely that counts as a "clear liquid, preferably high caloric."  

I tried to distract him from his hungry tummy by taking him to the "brand new" park, new to us anyway.  It worked until we discovered that it was all wet from the morning dew.  We headed back home to wait out our next hour watching his newly discovered Toy Story movie.  

Finally, the time came and we drove over to the imaging center to have his MRI.  Before we even got an IV in I got a call.  "This is Dr. Aikin, Harrison's surgeon."

Surgeon?

I remember a few things that he said, "we will definitely have to operate" and "come over here as soon as he wakes up after the MRI" and "I was so surprised when I saw his scans" and "it is just so big"

I had the sense before this phone call that it was a small cyst - that it could possibly be drained with the poke of a needle.  This all came as a shock to me.  I tried to hold myself together as they began inserting the IV (wonderfully easy after a quick burst of lidocaine through a tube with no needle).  The sweet nurses told me that he would be giggly at first and he was oh, so cute and giggly for a few moments until the medication quickly zoned him out.  He fought it at first trying to lift himself up without the strength to even lift his head and then he was quiet.

I chose not to go into the MRI room with him.  I had so much to take in and phone calls to make and they assured me that it would be loud, scary and boring in there.  

I talked to Jeff, who had reluctantly driven to Chicago that morning to keep a previous appointment.  I told him all of the things that the surgeon had said and we began to make arrangements for immediate surgery.  It sounded that urgent.  The nurses all thought it was that urgent, phone calls were made to the surgery clinic and they asked us to be prepared to be admitted right after our consultation.

Jeff called our friend Rosemary to come and sit with me.  She was there in no time and helped me so much through the next few hours.  She has been an angel for me in so many ways.  I tried to make sense of everything in my head and let family know what was happening.  I waited a long time to call my dad because I didn't want to cry. I practiced telling other people first: Rosemary, the school, the nurses.

The MRI lasted about an hour and Harrison was back in the room with us, quietly sleeping.  He had done great and the images were clear. We sat with him while he slept for another hour or so and continued to make plans. The nurses had told us that the kids wake up a lot happier if they are allowed to wake up on their own.  They didn't wait that long though.  They kept the IV in, expecting that he would need it at the hospital, woke him and sent us on our way as quickly as possible.  He was not happy. For hours.

Rosemary drove me to the hospital - I should mention that she was also tending a baby through all of this, holding her through naps and trying to keep her comfortable in a hospital room.  I was so grateful that I didn't have to drive.  I could barely use my phone.  I was calm, but not that functional!  Harrison cried all the way there and then fought a mean fight the entire time we were at the hospital.  He hadn't come out of the medication and was not at all himself.  He wasn't capable of sitting, walking or even laying down so we just took turns trying to hold him while he screamed and tried to get away.

Jeff arrived just as we were settling in and answering questions with the nurse (a wonderfully patient and kind woman). It was a great comfort to have him there again and shortly after he arrived the elders came to give Harrison a blessing.  I think they were a little shocked to see him as he was.  The blessing was short and sweet and they were on their way again.  Harrison quieted briefly afterward and a nurse took him away again still screaming and begging to be out and away from doctors.

In no time the surgeon arrived to explain the situation.  He gave us some basic anatomy lessons, drawing diagrams on the paper on the bed.  He talked about how there are so many different things that our bodies have to develop and that is is common for something to go wrong.  For Harrison it is a malformation of lymphatic system.  He has what he described as a filled water balloon taking up a large portion of his chest cavity.

He took us to a computer to see the scans that had been taken.  We saw slices of his body starting at his teeth.  As he scrolled down, one slice at a time you could see his air passageway and his shoulder bones and his lungs.  He pointed out on the scan where the right lung was, which was normal.  Then he showed us the left side and it looked nothing like the other side.  When he pointed out the growth I was shocked to see how large it is.  The left lung was so tiny in comparison to the right.  He showed us how there was a major vein or artery going right through the center of the growth and talked about how amazing it is that nothing is being squished to the point that he has symptoms.  He was in awe that he is asymptomatic.

He gave us an opportunity to ask questions and there were very few things that I could think of as I wrapped my mind around all of this.  I wanted to know how they were going in (from the side of his chest) and are we doing this today? "oh, heavens no."

Jeff wanted to ask as politely as he could if he was the most qualified doctor to do this.  We were assured again and again that the doctors in the surgical group were all top notch and we were in good hands.  He noted several times that this is the place where people from all around send unusual cases like ours. I checked his credentials online after I got home and he was listed in the top 1% of doctors in his specialty.  It makes me wonder if this is why we're in Wisconsin.

So we were sent home quite unexpectedly and told to act as usual until further notice.  He fell back asleep on the way home and slept and slept until we woke him up to eat something around 8pm.  He was cheerful and hungry and a little over medicated.  I've never seen a drunken baby, but I imagine that is what one looks like.  He was very talkative and way too wobbly to walk, though he kept trying.

They will call us to schedule the surgery and he can go to school as usual and woke up this morning not knowing that today was any different from any other day.

I asked him again this morning, "Harrison, what did you do yesterday?"

"Play toys, school"

Uckle Joe Came!

 We were so excited to have Uckle Joe (Harrison's words) come and stay with us for a few days.  We're still working on getting Tosha to come with him next time.  :)  He and Jeff had big plans to have lots of crazy adventures together, but we slimmed it down to one crazy adventure White Water Rafting (where they got stuck on a rock for twenty minutes - the only two left on the boat) and lots of time with the family.  As much as I wanted to send them off to do awesome things together, I worried that I wouldn't be able to handle things without Jeff's help.  I'm doing so much better than I have been, but I still worry from day to do how I'm going to be.

Jeff, Joe and I all worked from home while the kids were in school and then on Thursday evening we took everyone out to the traditional Seven Bridges tour.  We were expecting lots of fall colors because the leaves around here are all gorgeous right now, but out by the lake it was still nice and green.  The waves on the lake were huge and we found a bear print in the sand.

 

On Saturday we packed in a whole load of fun, starting with Jackson's soccer game.

 Goalie and defense are his favorite positions.  

After soccer we headed downtown to show Joe some of the cool old architecture, visit a sports store and have Indian food. For the afternoon, we decided to head to the Army Lake corn maze.  We had such a fun time there last year, we bought the same groupon again.

A view from the car on our way to the corn maze.

The drought made the corn look just terrible.  It was such a sad sight compared to last year's adventure, but still lots of fun.

On our way home we saw these cranes in a field along the road.

We finished off the night playing mini golf and a round of Spades with Lincoln.  He has been anxiously waiting for Joe's visit so that he could play Spades with him - he's learning quickly!  Joe had a good laugh at all of us for wanting to bid nil so often.  

We loved having Joe come and Harrison keeps asking me where he is even though he's been gone a few days now.  "Uckle Joe wake yet?"

A Day of Testing... and Waiting

Since Harrison's bout with pneumonia about 6 weeks ago he has had several x-rays to make sure that his chest was all clear.  The last time we had him tested they said that most of it had cleared, but there was this one area that still didn't look right.  They gave us two more weeks to watch him and try again to see if it cleared.  We were told that if he had any symptoms in that time to call and we'd do it sooner.  Well, he had a fever last night so we had to take him in one day shy of his six weeks.  We had a 9:15 appointment with his regular doctor and he sent us straight over to get a new x-ray.  After looking at the x-ray they saw that the area still wasn't clear and started calling it a cyst.  They sent us for a CT scan, which still didn't clear things up as much as they would have liked, so he had an ultrasound.  They still don't know exactly what is going on, but they seem to think that the chance it is cancerous is slim.  It is in an area where it isn't bothering any of his organs, so it isn't an emergency situation.  He has another appointment with his regular doctor tomorrow and is scheduled for an MRI on Wednesday so that they have a clear picture of his anatomy for removal.  Please keep him in your prayers!

I'm actually grateful that he had the pneumonia so that we found this early on before it even caused any symptoms.  It seems to be a blessing in disguise.