It's all in his head

They put the plastic wristband on my arm, just like the wristbands I wore until they fell off, two years ago. This time the band on Evan was on his wrist too, not on his tiny little ankle.

I sat in recovery Evan cuddled in my arms. The beeping monitors rang in my head transporting me back to the days when every beep, every alarm, caused my heart to stop for a second. This time the alarms were punctuated by Evan saying "no" as he kicked the pulse oximeter off his toe for the hundredth time.

I spent hours bedside talking to Evan in a cold hospital room. This time, he talked to me too.

I said, "I think we'd like to take our baby home now, He'll be much more comfortable at home". This time they let me pack up our things, and Evan, and walk out the door.

***********************

Being back at the hospital, knowing that Evan would be put under, knowing that he'd have an NG tube in, made the days leading up to his endoscopy really tough. I spent sleepless nights fretting over how Evan would cope with the stress of being in the hospital.

The procedure went well. They were behind schedule, but once we got in, it was quick. We spent several hours in recovery, because they didn't have a room for us. Evan was a trooper, he came out the anesthesia quickly, was scared, very scared. He cried, asked to be cuddled. Commented on the butterflies on the ceiling. Cried.

We moved into our room where Evan became more calm, but agitated. We hadn't changed his diaper since oh, 8 am. It was now 3 pm. This is where I changed into my tiger scrub Capri's courtesy of the post op surgical unit. (much better than the pee covered shorts I was wearing)

We then made the decision that it seemed silly to stay in the hospital over night, where no one would get any sleep, were Evan was miserable, when we were sure that we could keep the NG in place just as easily at home. (they put these sleeves on his arms, so he couldn't bend his elbows, they called them no-no's ) Where EVERY one would be happier. We called our nurse who then had to call the doctor to get the okay. Four hours and two conversations with our doctors, later we were on our way home.

We did doubt our decision, or at least I did all night. I worried that Evan would pull out his NG and we'd have to repeat the 24 hour PH study. I worried that the doctor would say, I told you so. It only took Evan sleeping through the night, waking up a very happy boy, full of his usual light, to make me sure of our decision. We rigged up a backpack system for his little monitor. and we spontaneously decided to go to the fair. Evan must have looked like this poor sick little boy in his arm cuffs, NG tube and funny little thing on his back. No matter to him, he had a blast. We even took off his No-No's with a half an hour or so to go in the test, and he didn't even try to remove the NG. Yea, Evan!!!

So the low down?

The doctor found nothing unusual. She took biopsies, which we will have results of in a few weeks. But there was nothing there. That means, this lack of swallowing? well, it's all in Evan's head.

Evan in his hospital bed, with his No-No's, his music sticks and of course Ringo.

Evan and Daddy share a cuddle and a song.

Evan at the fair, petting a cow, in his full gear.

**Ah, yes, the return to the hospital, much less traumatic than anticipated, however I still don't want to do it again for a while ever.
***And Ryan had a very lovely day being the apple of Nana's eye. I don't think he even missed us. Harrumph.