Rudolph the PomPom Nosed Reindeer

I did, didn’t I? I did promise to write an update on what went down with Reese’s line removal. But the days flew by, the house was decorated, a tree was trimmed, presents were bought, Christmas parties were attended, and we generally got caught up in life’s daily grind and here we are a week later. It seems a titch anticlimactic by this point. But I’ll update anyway.

First, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that it took 8 hours, from putting the car in neutral in a parking spot to getting back into the car and heading home. The actual procedure itself only took 30 minutes.

We got to IGT (image guided therapy) at 10:00am, registered in 30 seconds flat and were sent off to have Reese’s blood drawn in a new area for us, near Shoppers, by Ambulatory Services. Well, if this wasn’t the most pleasant blood drawing experience we’ve ever had! No sarcasm intented. They couldn’t do a finger poke because they needed a fair amount of blood and they couldn’t draw from Reese’s line because, well, I didn’t get an answer that made sense but whatever. All this meant a needle in the arm to draw blood. And while Reese is fine around needles, it is still an uncool experience. So in we go. And right off the bat there was none of this bored woman behind the counter doing busy work on the computer, answering the phone even though we got there before the phone rang, all the while completely ignoring us crap. The woman greated us immediately and warmly, took us to a seat right away, grabbed a nurse and got things rolling. LOVED HER! Within seconds of sitting down two lovely young ladies descended upon Reese, blowing bubbles, asking her lots of questions, admiring her cuteness, anything and everything to distract her from what’s about to happen. And it worked. Until the needle went in and Reese jumped about half a foot in the air. Reese cried but those bubbles kept coming and not 10 seconds later Reese was back to laughing and playing. When she was done they brought out the stickers and gave Reese a stuffed bear. And the blood-taking nurse, my gawd, I’ve never seen anyone get in and out of Reese’s tiny veins so quickly. Impressive. So, see what I mean, an awesome blood-drawing experience! No waiting, no stress, no anxiety. A little pain, but not much. I wish it was like that every time. Not sure why it’s not…

So back up to IGT we go to wait for the all clear. We waited, and waited, and waited. Reese’s blood was fine. But now we’re into the regular hospital backlog. And all this time Reese couldn’t eat or drink a thing because she was to be sedated. But she rocked. I on the other hand was starving. Felt like I was going to pass out by 12:30. But Reese was having a ball, playing on the iPad, watching Snow White. The old school one, with music that sounds like it’s playing from a victrola. At one point Snow White was warbling her way through a song when Reese said “mommy, let’s dance.” Good Lord. So in front of 7 other people Reese and I “waltzed” our way around the waiting room. We even got applause from one lady. A very sweet, if not slightly embarrassing, moment. At noon we were called in to the prep room. Yay, finally, we’re going to start! Not so fast. They did Reese’s vitals and every so often someone would pop in and ask a few questions, then pop out. They had a bunch of those stuffed animals that sing songs and bop around when you press a button on one of the hands. There was a Frosty the Snowman singing, um, Frosty the Snowman. A moose that had been genetically spliced with a Christmas tree singing some shmaltzy holiday song. And a Rudolph singing…you get the picture. Reese horded them all on to her bed and for the next hour and a half would play each of them one by one and then, when we were REALLY lucky, she would play all 3 at once. She put the insanity in, well, insanity. She seemed to bond most with Rudolph. I on the otherhand fancied the Moosemas tree. By 1:30 we were finally called into the OR and the nurses uttered a collective sigh of relief. Reese was put to sleep hugging Rudolph and the show was on the road (Rudolph eventually trotted back to the prep room).
Reese thankfully slept off the sedation and by 3:00 she woke up, groggy but fine. And the line was out. Whoo hoo!!!! We were wheeled up to the 4th floor for a couple hours of observation (to make sure she didn’t bleed out). Things were fine, we were watching TV quietly, until Reese remembered Rudolph. From there she fell into an all out mental breakdown over Rudolph. So the nurse went out to find a suitable replacement. She came back with a bunch of stuff, including a little run of the mill reindeer. Big mistake. The non-red nosed reindeer was summarily snubbed and the weeping continued. So you know what the nurse did?!?! God lover her, she combed the entire hospital for a stuffed reindeer, went to a place with arts and crafts, found a red pompom and hot glue gunned the “red nose” to the reindeer. Oh….my….gawd!!! I KNOW!!!! Reese was so happy and I was just blown away. I wish I remembered the nurses name because she deserves an award.

After 2 hours the nurse called the Fellow from Haemetology to come take a look at Reese and discharge her. We waited, waited and waited. There was a mix up on who was supposed to come down. By 5:30 I asked the nurse what would happen if we just left. She said let’s just try the Fellow one more time and if s/he wasn’t there in 15 minutes that we should just go. Amen sista! Who needs those damn doctors anyway. The doc was a no show and we got the hell out of Dodge at 6:00pm. Reese’s hole has healed nicely. She was a bit bruised around the site, but other than that it looks really good. Another milestone reached and celebrated!