Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Hospital-Induced Memory Lapse

It's o'dark-thirty, the "middle of the night", the wee small hours, and I'm awake. I'm pretty sure that it won't last long and I can get that last hour of sleep before we have to leave for the hospital. The Boy will be having a CT scan in a matter of hours to determine what's what in the cancer realm. He just had his last nursing before the test, as he has to be sedated. Most CT scans do not require sedation but if you've ever had one, you'll know that the first instruction is to lie perfectly still, and the only way you'll get a baby to do that is if he's sleeping.

Not being a big fan of drugs in general, I rather look forward to the time when The Boy will be able to do this test while awake. I wonder how old he'll be then; either way, I'm fairly certain that he'll still have to have this test done on a regular basis.

Interestingly enough, I was trying to remember what all of the procedures were for The Boy's first CT scan--when he could have his milk, what time we had to go, where we went, and how long we waited. It's all very fuzzy in my memories. Now, they say (whomever "they" are) that when a woman gives birth, she subsequently forgets most of the labor experience, certainly the pain of labor, for many reasons including her actually wanting to have more children. I think that's just propaganda from the various groups of people who believe that women should spend a lot of time popping out babies.

I remember being in labor with The Boy. Pretty well. And I'm not going to sugar-coat it and say that it was no big deal or that it didn't hurt like the dickens at times. Musical Daddy can attest to the fact that I wasn't too miserable except for near the end of the process. My obstetrician was amazed at how calm, relatively speaking, I was when she arrived for the delivery, especially considering that I was going without anesthesia. She and the other doctor there were also impressed with the delivery itself. But I digress. As I tend to do.

Point being, I could probably recount the sequence of events pertaining to labor and delivery better than some of the processes pertaining to The Boy's most recent hospital stay. The Tuesday evening and all day Wednesday, when they were preparing him for procedures and when they were doing the various tests...that was a hodge-podge of waiting, calming the crying Boy, watching things being done, waiting some more, making calls, talking to doctors...labor and delivery is pretty straightforward. You've got one thing to do. It takes awhile. It's not a picnic in the park but you get it done.

Thank goodness I have my mother here. Musical Daddy is away at band camp; he'll be back soon. The Boy does miss him. Both Musical Daddy and my mother have such a calming effect on The Boy and they love him so much. Even though The Boy is still in a mommymommymommy phase, he knows where else to get the best snuggles.

In related news, I went to my school yesterday to get some work done in my classroom and one of my colleagues, who is a cancer patient herself at the same hospital, told her oncologist about The Boy and his Wilm's Tumor. The oncologist basically said, "Oh, it's just Wilm's Tumor. He'll be fine."

Sounds like a plan.

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