As always, I apologize for the silence in blogland. I've been enjoying my time with my newly happy and sleeping baby! Yes, you read that correctly! My dear baby has transformed from a dragon to a unicorn...okay not so much a unicorn, BUT he has become much more "regular" in the temperament and department. Sleep is still an ongoing battle of the wills, mom vs. son, but has improved drastically at the end of leap 4. Those of you who are following your baby's development via the wonder weeks book (or app) know what I'm talkin' about. Let me get an AMEN! Leap 4 don't play! So glad it's over, even though leap 5 is lurking at my back doorstep.
So, now for the next description of our cranio journey.
Pre-surgery, we spent 3-4 days at Duke Children's hospital getting ready for surgery. We had an initial appointment with Dr. Fuchs, the nuerosurgeon who, from seeing and feeling, confirmed the saggital craniosynostosis. He requested us to have a CT scan done 2 days later for absolute assurance that it was only the one suture causing us issues. He said that the frontal and back bossing (protruding of the skull in those directions) wasn't bad, and of course he wanted to be 100% sure before making an infant undergo brain surgery! That was horrible. Let me just say, that seeing a baby come out of mild anesthesia was bad! Archer went in for the CT scan and it was heartbreaking! Because my sweet dear son cannot fall asleep in just any conditions, he was an overtired disaster that morning. He was starving and irritated, and would not settle down long enough for a 30 second scan. He had to be sedated. While coming out of sedation, we were able to stay in a room to ourselves and I bounced him to sleep in my arms. I held him for about 45 minutes as he slept. He then started to come to....right as we smell something strange....and an announcement blares on the intercom "Code Red" "Code Red". Any of you guys know what code RED means? Yes. A fire in the building. I seriously cannot make this stuff up! So we had to evacuate!!! There was smoke and it smelled like an electrical fire. Turns out it was on the floor above us. Thankfully, it was taken care of swiftly AND it was a beautiful day outside. We had to wait a bit longer for archer to rest enough so that he would nurse, and then we were discharged. We had a pre-op appointment as well that was relatively scarring for a momma. Archer was once again exhausted from not napping all day (up from 6-1) and then had to have blood drawn. Oh my heart! Even remembering it now makes me want to go pick him up and just hug all over his little self. He had to be pinned down and we tried shaking toys, administering sugar water drops, talking to him, anything and everything, but nothing worked. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and his sweet little face was as red as it could get. He ended up falling asleep in my arms as we walked to the car. :( We also saw Dr. Marcus, the plastic surgeon who would be removing the fused suture and following up with us on his helmet therapy.
Pre-surgery, we spent 3-4 days at Duke Children's hospital getting ready for surgery. We had an initial appointment with Dr. Fuchs, the nuerosurgeon who, from seeing and feeling, confirmed the saggital craniosynostosis. He requested us to have a CT scan done 2 days later for absolute assurance that it was only the one suture causing us issues. He said that the frontal and back bossing (protruding of the skull in those directions) wasn't bad, and of course he wanted to be 100% sure before making an infant undergo brain surgery! That was horrible. Let me just say, that seeing a baby come out of mild anesthesia was bad! Archer went in for the CT scan and it was heartbreaking! Because my sweet dear son cannot fall asleep in just any conditions, he was an overtired disaster that morning. He was starving and irritated, and would not settle down long enough for a 30 second scan. He had to be sedated. While coming out of sedation, we were able to stay in a room to ourselves and I bounced him to sleep in my arms. I held him for about 45 minutes as he slept. He then started to come to....right as we smell something strange....and an announcement blares on the intercom "Code Red" "Code Red". Any of you guys know what code RED means? Yes. A fire in the building. I seriously cannot make this stuff up! So we had to evacuate!!! There was smoke and it smelled like an electrical fire. Turns out it was on the floor above us. Thankfully, it was taken care of swiftly AND it was a beautiful day outside. We had to wait a bit longer for archer to rest enough so that he would nurse, and then we were discharged. We had a pre-op appointment as well that was relatively scarring for a momma. Archer was once again exhausted from not napping all day (up from 6-1) and then had to have blood drawn. Oh my heart! Even remembering it now makes me want to go pick him up and just hug all over his little self. He had to be pinned down and we tried shaking toys, administering sugar water drops, talking to him, anything and everything, but nothing worked. He screamed at the top of his lungs, and his sweet little face was as red as it could get. He ended up falling asleep in my arms as we walked to the car. :( We also saw Dr. Marcus, the plastic surgeon who would be removing the fused suture and following up with us on his helmet therapy.
Surgery Day: Nov 4th, 2015
Archer had his usual restless night of sleeping, but was up at just the right time (2:30) to feed. I had to make sure he was done eating by 3:00 in order to arrive at the hospital by 7:00 to be admitted for surgery. The hospital was about 35/45 minutes away, and of course, my baby did NOT sleep in the car. We arrived on time and then had to wait for the nurse to call us back to the pre-op area to begin the check in process. Poor tater was pretty hungry and I felt bad for holding him. He smelled his breakfast at face level, but I couldn’t let him eat it. Chance held him and I tried to distract him with noises and toys. His grandparents were with us, ready to help and support us with anything we needed during the presumably rough stretch ahead of us in the next few hours.
We were called back after about 10-15 minutes and then had
to wait in another small room, where we met with the neurosurgeon, Dr. Fuchs to
review the procedure. Keep in mind
that at this point, Archer is way overtired and super hungry. I was mostly
anxious because I just wanted them to get on with it, so he wouldn’t get more
and more worked up from needing to nap.
I honestly don’t remember really anything that happened back there other
than nurses popping in to put stuff into a computer, while we desperately tried
to keep our poor son distracted from his exhaustion and hunger. Chance had introduced Archer (well all
of us) to a cheesy tom & jerry cartoon he used to watch as a kid. Yo queiro Mama. Youtube it. You won’t regret it…or will you? We played that several
times on repeat for Archer.
Somehow it kept him mesmerized.
He also loves scrolling through instagram. Weird, I know, but he gets super still and quiet and holds
his hands together like he’s praying.
At last, the anesthesiologist came in to give us her run
down of procedure and risks, and said she would be the one to carry him
back. At this point, I expected it
to be hard to hand him over, but I really just wanted him to get the surgery
over with. Waiting 2 weeks for our
first appointment to diagnose, then being at the hospital for several days for
appointments and scans, and then waiting another week and a half for the
procedure was long enough to make you go mad with anticipation. The anesthesiologist was a very sweet
woman, and Archer went to her no problem.
There was no crying (shocker) even as she carried him down the hall to
the OR. I was most fearful
of him crying being taken away, since he’s so cranky when tired. The Lord spared us that. I’m so thankful he did, because I
was not prepared for the next step in the process.
We sat and waited for about 30/45 minutes and were then called
and told that the surgery had started. Roughly 50 minutes later, we were called to go meet
with the doctors. His endoscopic craniectomy was complete, and both the nuero
and plastic surgeon (Dr. Fuchs & Dr. Marcus), said the procedure went
exactly as it was designed and that there was minimal blood loss. No blood transfusion was needed! A transfusion is often required due to
the small size of babies. I guess
our tank of a baby was big enough to have enough blood to skip that.
We were praising the Lord for a textbook case of saggital
craniosynostosis and a smooth operation. The plastic surgeon said, “I almost
didn’t even break a sweat.”
We were so thrilled with our entire experience at Duke Children’s
hospital in Durham, NC. I cannot
speak highly enough for the staff and surgical team there.
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