pre-op

so today was the pre-op meeting with dr. myseros.


the meeting itself was fine--

we discussed the surgery:
           * the doctor started by saying that rogan's age is the perfect time to be doing the "pi procedure" surgery, because his skull is still really soft, they can do less cutting, and the surgery will be shorter.
           * he'll make a zigzag incision from ear to ear (toward the back of his head)
           * and two u-shaped skull cuts (like the symbol for pi) on each side of his head
           * and one small skull cut on the top of his head to shorten the length of his head
           * the goal is that, because of the cuts, the bones will "pop" out and release the pressure that is currently there, and then grow back together forming a normal round head.  the doctor said that there will be obvious correction almost right away.
            * 40% of patients have a blood transfusion and jon's dad graciously has offered to donate blood for him (he is a universal donor).  thank you, Pap!
           

then we discussed the recovery:
            *3-5 days in the hospital
            * there will be swelling and his eyes probably will be swelled shut at some point (so sad)
            * they told us only one parent will be able to sleep there with him, but that it is a good idea for us to switch nights so that one of us is always well rested
            *  the doctor hugged me and said that everything will go well.  it helped (a little). 

            * there will be no need for a helmet and we will only have to protect his skull as we would a normal "soft spot"

then we had to take rogan next door to get his blood work done:
(enter scary horror music.......)
let's just say,
2 hours,
8 needle pokes,
4 nurses,
and about a million screams later,
we finally had about 3 cc's of blood from the little guy. (not even enough for the tests they needed)

it was not fun and i guess i gave him my wonderful skinny veins.  the nurse said he is one of the hardest ones she has every had.  without fail, i almost always have to be poked at least twice when i get blood drawn.  i always warn the nurse that i have "bad veins" and they always say, "i do this all day long" (or something like that), and then promptly proceed to collapse a vein or just miss altogether.  nonetheless, it was painful to watch and a scary precursor to what he will be like next week in "real" pain. 

he has to wear this leg band until we are out of the hospital

we finally got home about 5:30pm.

tomorrow we have to take him to the pediatrician to get a thorough wellness exam done and have the doctors fill out some paperwork.  that's it until tuesday morning at 6:00am. 

thanks to Nana and Ms. Manda who helped us out today with watching hollis!