Another Surgery

​Friday was a LONG day. John, Noah, and I were on the road at 6:30; were we told to be at Outpatient day surgery by 9:30. We walked into the day surgery registration area around 9am, filled out all the necessary forms, got Noah's vitals...then we waited. And waited. AND WAITED. By noon, Noah was starving and constantly asking for milk. (He hadn't eaten or drank anything since 830 the night before.) We were finally told that Noah was #5 on a list of 5 people his surgeon was working on that day. Despite his discomfort, Noah did well during the waiting and John & I were able to keep him entertained for the most part. At 1 pm we were finally called into an outpatient room. Then we waited more. Around 2pm a nurse came in and asked a few questions, and informed us that we were actually scheduled for surgery at 1pm and Noah could have eaten breakfast. About this time I was really losing my patience and becoming angry. Noah did not go back to the o.r. until 3:30. He had his burn excised (sp?) and stitched together, a port was placed through the area around his collar bone and threaded to an artery, and he had a lumbar puncture. We should receive the reports from the LP and Johns Hopkins around the same time - middle of this next week. We also go back this wednesday to have Dr. B check out the burn site. If it is healing  properly, and we have results from the tests, we should be clear to begin chemo.
We were told Noah did really well; all the procedures went as expected - he didn't need a skin graft!! So we were able to be discharged last night, and we drove home while Noah devoured several mini packs of Pringles and lots of milk and ice cream! At this point - I'm just glad he eats. :) He is doing great - right now he is walking around with a basket on his head and playing the drums.
Yesterday mine and John's patience was tested to the MAX...but we did ok. We had a small explosion occur when Noah returned from recovery to his room - we discovered staple marks in several places. The nurse explained that the drapes are stapled to the body to hold them in place. We never realized this was common procedure in the o.r. so we had to have to Dr. paged to explain it in detail. We now realize it is for the patient's protection from infection, etc. But when John saw those small knicks on Noah's legs and stomach, it was all he could do to keep his hands to himself. I was proud of the way he handled the situation. (Before that we had been told by a different Dr., once again, that the investigation board was not certain they had found the cause of Noah's burn, and they may not ever come to a definite conclusion. That was like throwing oil on fire.)  All throughout the day I had to keep telling myself that other people have been in our shoes...and much worse. We can make it through this, and we can do it in a godly way. We just had to keep asking the Lord to guide us...and it ended up being a great day - Noah did well in surgery; he didn't need a skin graft; we were able to come home to our own beds.
On a different note - Thursday I was making preparations for our trip to Birmingham and decided to take our cat to the vet (she had fleas and needed shots). I dropped her off and planned on leaving her for the night since we wouldn't be home. I received a call from Dr. Pitman around 5 - our cat had FIV, or kitty AIDS! He told me that with all we were going through we didn't need this, and Noah definitely did not need to be around her; he could get a bacterial infection. Jones had to be put to sleep...another unexpected bump in our plans. Dr. Pitman so generously offered to take care of her for us, with no charge, and bury her little body so we didn't have to come get her and worry with that. We are SOO grateful to him and his staff for having compassion on us and helping us out in this way. During our wait yesterday, I discovered online that only 2% - 3.5% of all cats in the US contract FIV. 2%. I believe that we heard about 4-5 times yesterday, "this typically doesn't happen but you should be aware of this risk...." I don't want to hear that anymore! For the past 3 weeks events that have occured in our lives "typically don't happen." They told us there was a small chance that Noah's lung could be punctured during the port procedure...I prayed really hard during this surgery! Praise God that He kept Noah safe and everything went well.
I don't know why these strange things keep happening...why God has allowed them to happen. But I do know that John and I will continue to call on the name of the Lord, because He is the source of our strength. If we didn't have Him, His word, and our brothers and sisters in Christ we would be crazy!