Hannah's Day at St. John

Yesterday Hannah spent the day at Saint John Medical Center, not because she was sick (she wasn't and isn't) but because we wanted to make sure that the squeaky sound she makes when she breathes wasn't anything to worry about. The procedure is called a tracheoscopy; essentially they run a small tube with a camera on the end of it right down her nose and through her breathing passages so they can examine them without having to cut her open at all. The assumption was still that she had laryngomalacia, which is essentially harmless, but this procedure would help us be sure.

We got there at 9am sharp and got checked in, and they took us right down to the pediatric ICU department where the doctor could perform the procedure. Their plan was to get a quick IV going and feed her some anesthetic through that. That was their plan. What's that about the "best-laid plans of mice and men"? Include PICU nurses in that list of plan layers... after the two best nurses at starting IVs in the whole hospital both failed several times to get her started (she's pretty strong for a baby and she was struggling) the doctor actually came in and tried it himself. After one or two false starts, the doctor managed to get one started, but then because Hannah was sweating from all the fighting she had been doing, the tape came loose and they lost that IV as well. Ultimately they decided to give her the anesthetic through a regular shot and not try to poke her again with an IV. To their credit, even though they poked her probably nine or ten times, I don't think any of the sites they tried to start the IV bruised up after. (I think the nurses were pretty embarrassed that they couldn't get it going... one of them kept telling me "we ALWAYS get it in one try!" and when the doctor ordered the shot for Hannah, they each tried to order one for themselves too. )

Anyway, they gave her the shot and then shooed me and Cathy out of the room, which was what we had been told already they were going to do. By noon they were all done with the scope, and the doctor came in and told us the results... it was indeed laryngomalacia and there were no growths or anything that shouldn't be there. Lifelong singer Cathy was ecstatic to hear that Hannah's vocal cords looked great. (I could have told her that... Hannah was crying pretty good when they poked her for the IVs, but you should hear her when she thinks we're slacking off on getting her a bottle!) We also learned that she had continued to wiggle so much that they had to dose her again to keep her still! Tough kid, that one! She was, to all appearances, back to normal by 3 or 4 or so, but we stayed until about 7 so Hannah could get two doses of a steroid that the doctor wanted her to get after the procedure.

That was yesterday, Thursday. Today Hannah had a spell where she was struggling to breathe, which is not an unexpected possible side effect of the tube (the air passage has been irritated by the presence of the tube and so there can be some swelling). We were told yesterday by the doctor to let him know if this happened and he would get us some medicine, so Cathy went down to his office and Hannah got some medicine to keep the swelling down for a few days; after that she should be just fine.

Only problem is, this medicine makes her a little cranky. It happens like this: she's perfectly calm and happy for a while, then all of a sudden she's like I'M GONNA BLOW!! I'M GONNA BLOW!! all wild-eyed and psycho for a few minutes. She fusses and fusses and then it's over. Again, we were warned that the meds might make her fussy, so everything from start to finish, with the exception of that initial IV that never happened, has basically been by the book. I told Cathy on the way home from the hospital last night... clearly she and I don't know how to make frail babies. Mikey's always been a tough cookie, too.