A visit to Dr. McKay with Thing One and Thing Two

This morning I took the boys to the pediatrician for a follow-up appointment with Dr. McKay. The good news is that, after examining Corey and asking me a few questions, Dr. McKay declared that Corey is doing fabulously well. This is what I assumed, given how much energy Corey now has, but it was certainly reassuring to hear.

The bad news is that the kids were maniacs in the exam room. Just full out crazy. Anything they could get into, they got into. Corey started by giggling wildly and turning the lights on and off. On and off. On and off. I thought I was going to have a light-induced seizure. Then he decided that flinging the door open and running out of the room and down the hall would be fun. Which of course Mason had to mimic. In the opposite direction, of course. So first I had to decide which child to chase past the nurses and the other well-behaved children, apologizing as I went and trying to ignore the glares from the other mothers. I chose Mason. Who I threw over my shoulder sack-of-potatoes style (more glares - I wish I could bottle those, because they'd probably work better than alarm systems for scaring off intruders), then I grabbed Corey's hand and dragged them both back to the exam room.

Where Mason proceeded to bang the doors of the cabinets as loudly as possible. BANG BANG BANG BANG! Meanwhile, Corey decided to climb on the exam table and run up and down it. As I was removing Corey from the table, Mason started opening the drawers and flinging the contents on the floor. I nearly slipped on a small black object as I was running to stop him. When I grabbed Mason, Corey went flying out the door and down the hall again. ARRRGGHHHH!

When I got them both back in the room again, I had to stand in front of the door, with one hand on the light, and use every threat I could think of to stop them from further wreaking havoc for the remaining eternity it took for Dr. McKay to arrive and examine Corey. By some miracle, they calmed down for Dr. McKay, though Mason decided to throw a book across the room for one good last kick in the pants.

I brought them home and chased them around the playground until they were panting. Thank goodness it wasn't raining, though I might have run them around in the mud anyway. they needed it. Urchins.

Follow-up appointment with Dr. Brenner

Today we packed the kids up and headed back to JHU for our follow-up appointment with Corey's PC, Dr. Brenner. We warned Corey that his stitches would be coming out today, that he'd have a finger stick, and that he'd have to talk to Dr. Brenner, but we assured him that he'd be coming home with us. No more spending the night at Hopkins! Corey was fine with this arrangement, and he was not nervous at all for the trip.

In addition to the other fun events planned four our appointment, we had an echo. Though Corey wasn't expecting this, he simply watched "Shrek" and chatted up the tech the whole time. He didn't even complain when we asked him to take his shirt off, which shocked me, as this has been a major point of contention at Chez Corey since the surgery. He was a bit put off when she ran the camera over his stitches, and he looked at me with woeful eyes and made the sign for "all done". But to his credit he soldiered on.

When it came time to have his stitches removed, he asked everyone but the nurse removing the stitches to leave the room. Even Mommy. As in, "Mommy, leave." Alrighty then. So I stood outside the door and waited to be called back in. As I was standing there in the hallway, twiddling my thumbs, Dr. Brenner strolled by and asked where Corey was and who was with him. I told him. Dr. Brenner registered a look of surprise and said, "That's very mature". He was impressed by how well Corey is doing emotionally after all he's endured.

Some short time later, Corey called for us to reenter the room, and he announced that his stitches were out and his finger prick (done to check his coumadin levels) was all done. That's my big tough guy!

We spoke with Dr. Brenner about how Corey is faring (well by all accounts), discussed his meds, and talked about restrictions to activity. The good news is that Corey can start going to the mall and library school/etc., again (yay!). The bad news is that he can't ride his bike for 2 months! There is a risk of improper healing if we allow him to get injured at this point, so we'll have to go with better safe than sorry. But he is going to be so jealous when his little girlfriend Phoebe goes by on her bike. I don't look forward to that. I do look forward to nearly all else getting back to normal, though. Whatever that is.

Corey's chest

Corey is scheduled to have his chest tube stitches removed tomorrow so I wanted to get a picture with them still in.

Around the house

Since we've been home, we've pretty much just been hanging around the house. Corey is doing really well, though he still doesn't want to do much walking or moving around. We've been carrying him from room to room, mostly, and to the potty. He's very put off by his terribly marked/scarred up chest, which is still very angry looking, as well as the stitches from the chest tubes (they remain in until we see Dr. Brenner on Wednesday). Taking off his shirt for any reason, therefore, ends in a lot of screaming.

We did opt to get a bit adventurous yesterday, and we took Corey and Mason for a walk, mostly to escape the house. We put Corey in the stroller with his stuff and his Linus, and he just hung out the whole time. He really seemed to enjoy it. It was funny, but we ran into Katie, Corey's PICU nurse! How "small world" is that? She was walking with her baby, Sam, and her dog, Attila. Attila is a bulldog - the name certainly looks appropriate. She was so happy to see Corey out, even just in the stroller. Kaite, not Attila. Attila rather looked like she might like to have Corey for a snack.

In any case, for follow-up Corey will have an appointment with Dr. Brenner, where as I said his stitches will be removed, he'll be examined, and he'll have a finger stick to check his coumadin levels. The finger stick seems like a simple thing, but once you realize that they have to squeeze enough blood out of the little prick to fill a very small container, it's less appealing. After that, we'll go to LabCorp for weekly sticks for the following two weeks (again to check the coumadin levels), and then monthly after that. Apparently it takes some doing to get the coumadin levels exactly right.

We also have an appointment with our pediatrician the following Wednesday (in two weeks). It'll be good to have Dr. McKay see Corey then - I'm sure I'll be ready to have him examined again by then, just for my own peace of mind.

Thanks again to everyone for all the food, toys, prayers, love, support and visits to the hospital. Our amazing family and friends made this extremely difficult time much more bearable. And most importantly, Corey felt the love!

Be sure and check all the pics out that Damian posted during the Fontan process.....