Testing Done, Waiting Begins

Well Reese's CT Scan is done. It has definitely been a LONG day. We arrived at the hospital at 10:30 am and finally left at 3:30 pm. That is a long time for a 2 year old, but she did great. Of course, she probably loved having mom and dad all to herself for that length of time. :)

Thankfully, even though I had been told that she could have clear liquids up until 10 am (and given a list of what those included), I only let her have a small drink of water when she woke up. That was a good thing since the nurse who checked her in this morning said there was no way she should have had anything since midnight and didn't know why we were told otherwise. Other than that, things were going as scheduled until we got over to the CAT Scan area to talk to the anaesthesiologist. He was very nice and so was his nurse. However, he did wonder why Reese was being put totally under. (Just like we had wondered.) He thought it was "overkill." I had asked several times at our pre-op appointment if it was really necessary to give Reese a general anaesthetic. Everyone kept saying that it would be ok (I think they thought I was just a nervous mommy), and that she would only be under for 30 minutes to an hour. Well - after speaking with the anaesthesiologist, we were approached by a nurse who said that he had just gotten the sheet with the orders from our pediatrician. On this sheet it said that Reese only needed an oral sedative. General anaesthesia was only to be used if necessary. So - that was nice to find out that she did not have to be put under. However, it did mean that we had to go pick up the sedative at our drugstore, bring it back, give it to Reese, and then wait 30 minutes for it to take effect. If they had had the orders when they should have, we would have known to stop by the drugstore before coming to the hospital and saved about an hour and a half or two in waiting time. Thankfully, my dad went and got the medicine for us and brought it to the hospital. After Reese took it, it was time for her IV. Poor Reese. The IV came out when they were taping it down the first two tries (they tried both hands). After that another nurse came down from the pediatric wing and got it on her first try. Reese was not too thrilled about the 3 pricks in her hands and was quite loud in her protests. That girl has got a good set of lungs! She was still wide awake so we gave her a second dose of the sedative. It didn't do much. They decided to just do the scan anyway. The cat scan itself went well. She was wide awake, but did lie still for us. After a few"pictures," they took out the IV and we got to leave! Reese had been requesting Sonic (I can't imagine why she was so hungry and thirsty after not having anything since 10 the previous night), so that is where we went!

I wrote all this in detail even though it really wasn't that bad of an experience because something dawned on me about halfway through all this. Even though the lack of communication between doctors and hospital and nurses was frustrating, Jim and I tried not to let our frustration out on those people. They were all very nice and doing their jobs and it wasn't their fault that the communication wasn't there. Just when I was about ready to get upset over some detail, our neighbor (a nurse at the hospital) walked in to help with the IV. I saw her and realized that she didn't need to see her "Christian neighbor" ranting at a nurse. Sometimes I forget that we never know who is watching us and seeing how we react to situations. It is so important that I always behave how God desires. I can make sure that my daughter is receiving the best possible care without being ugly or demanding about it. And almost always, others respond better to nice words rather than demanding ones. (I know I do!) After seeing our neighbor, I swallowed the things I wanted to say and acted appropriately. I am so glad that I did. It turns out that one of our other nurses had recently been a customer of Jim's in our store and one of the techs had graduated from high school with me. Several other people witnessed our behavior today as well and I hope that we represented Christ well. In spite of the miscommunication going on, Reese was well taken care of and definitely watched over by her nurses. I pray that if the people we came in contact with today don't know Christ, then perhaps from our behavior today and the behavior of other Christians yesterday or tomorrow, they will one day desire to know Him. May we always be living testimonies for God!

After all that, please continue to pray for Reese. We will hopefully hear results tomorrow, but it might not be until Monday or Tuesday.


Here is Reese at home tonight showing her and Piggie's matching bracelets and bandages. Piggie got to get a cat scan, too. :)