A Not So Fun Day in Houston!

Today was not as fun as yesterday! We were scheduled for a 9:30am CTScan and to see Dr. Brandt and Dr. Wesson afterwards to discuss their plans for the operations. I was afraid of not getting there in time, so I left at 8:15 thinking it would take a good 45 minutes to an hour, but got there by 8:40. Initially, it looked like it was good I had because the CTScans needed pre-approval and that wasn't done so they were trying to deal with the insurance on that. It seemed two rooms full of people had already gone through who had gotten there after us so I asked and they said we were about 15 minutes out.
When they got us back in there it was another couple hours before they started the IV because I told them that Dr. Brandt had promised to do the blood draws for pre-op at the same time so they didn't have to stick them again. So then we had to wait for that paperwork to clear. They finally got that done by 1:00 and they had to wait for one of those tests to come back from labs and was finally cleared by 2:30. They did the CT on Joy first and she was a trooper. She did alot better than I thought she would. Then Mercy, who was a little more apprehensive did fine with some coaxing. But then when the test was done she started sneezing and suddenly began to itch all over. Quickly they called for the doctor and had Benadril standing by which they did administer within about 3 minutes of it starting. Then of course she was sound asleep but we could see by her skin she was still reacting. We let her sleep till nearly 4:30. By then it was too late to met with the doctors and we have scheduled to meet with them at 1:00 tomorrow.
So far I am very impressed with Texas Children's Hospital. The staff are amazing! Katy was their nurse the whole day and she took such great care of the girls. Then there is a team of Child Life specialists that help kids cope with whatever they are going through. In the Diagnostic Imagine we were in, there was a team of two helping out. They came over and introduced themselves and explained what would be happening and had a book with pictures of the CT machine and little samples of the IV to touch and see before it was actually done to them. One was Cynda and she was training Lauren. Lauren helped out with Grace as Cynda was trying to preoccupy Joy with a "Where's Waldo" book while they were putting in the IV. Grace really wanted to participate in finding Waldo, not realizing it was a tactic measure, so Lauren was occupying her and giving her attention too.
After I got home to the camper and through in a load of laundry, I was walking back and there was Lauren coming out of the camper next to us! So she came over and we had a wonderful visit while she waited for her dad to arrive and he came over later too. It was fun to get to know them and was a wonderful "coincidence".

So...back we go tomorrow to meet with their team of doctors...finally!

Stay tuned!