Ultimate Hypothetical

So which would I rather do, go to a baby shower or sit in a waiting room in a hospital with significant sensory overload. On the one hand, you have polite conversation, food that I typically don't care for (I'm kind of a picky eater and things like quiche, chicken salad and pettifores just don't do it for me) and the opening of presents that aren't for me and often times are full of diapers and blankets. On the other hand, Saturday at the NICU is popping. I think I have mentioned before that Baylor is Preemie central for north Texas, so they get babies from far and wide. That also means families sometimes can only see there babies on the weekends. That must really suck. We struggle with letting a day go by without at least one of us being there to visit Thomas. We're very lucky to live as close as we do. Anyway, on a typical Saturday, you can get upwards of 5 or 6 families at any given moment, with other children in tow, that are trying to maximize their weekend with their child. On some Saturdays (maybe yesterday, I don't recall) there are 8 children in the room. Let's just say, its loud and leave it at that.

I know, I know, there's just no win in this hypothetical. It just seems cruel all the way around.

I chose the hospital, mostly because it was a girl's only shower and I wasn't invited. There will be a couples shower at some point and I may not be able to hide out at the hospital the next time. And before anyone gets up in arms, I think I have the silent backing of many fathers out there.

Yesterday turned out to be a very long day. The plan was to go up to the hospital at 11:30, sign the release, laser his eyes at noon, see him at 1. Go home at 1:30, my parents go to the airport, Rebecca's parents check in to Che Elliot, Rebecca scoots off to her shower with her mom and her sister (Yes, Leigh was in Dallas! And there was much rejoicing) , I enjoy a beautiful Saturday outside. Sounds like the perfect plan, no?

We rushed up there at 11:30 to sign the release, but we had no doctor and Thomas' nurse had not heard from him yet. So we waited for an hour with no news. It turned out that the doctor had been called in for emergency surgery. False start. So everyone goes home, we make the parental swap, Rebecca goes to her shower and her dad and I sit by the phone and wait. The call comes at around 2. We go up there, go in, see Thomas, doctor arrives 2 minutes after we get there, laser in tow, I sign the release, doctor says I'll see you in an hour. We enter the waiting room and settle into the whirlwind of activity. At 4:30, Rebecca calls because I hadn't called her to tell her things were all done and all was well. Rebecca's uncle came up to the waiting room and gained us a small victory by getting the community tv put onto the NCAA basketball tournament. Rebecca, her mom and her sister showed up as well. We then became one of those families, taking up lots of the room and adding to the background noise.

Around 2 hours into it, we were able to find out that the doctor had finished the first eye and was starting on the second. This was a bit too much for Rebecca, who naturally started to get scared and assumed the worse. The whole operation is supposed to take an hour and we're well into the second hour. After days of worrying about this and making the right decision, it became a little bit too overwhelming. I tried to stick to my philosophy of not worrying about something until someone tells me there's something to worry about. That's just the kind of Rosy, glass half full kind of guy I am. Ignorance is bliss. I think that's why I like cartoons so much.

Finally the doctor came out and let us know that everything went fine and Thomas was good. It took a long time for a few reasons. First and foremost, Thomas is very fair, no pigmentation. That apparently does not help the laser, so it takes a longer time. Because it took so long , they had to give Thomas breaks to allow his vitals to stabilize. In the end all was well. We visited with Thomas for a while. He was still recovering from the drugs, but doing great.

Rebecca and her mom went back up later that night to see him and because Thomas had apnea ed a couple times. This is not uncommon, due to the trauma, the drugs and just being tired. Not very cool though. He had to be resuscitated at least once. Thomas' nurse was able to adjust his settings and he's doing much better.

Very long day...

Footnote:
Rebecca spoke to Thomas' doctor today. Since we had originally elected to enter the study, Thomas' info had been sent down to Houston and he was randomized. It turns out that had Thomas entered the program, he still would have gotten the surgery. Since his information was there, the doctor asked if we would still participate in the program as part of the control group. Thomas doesn't have to do anything else, but his information will help determine if the injections are viable in the future. We made the right choice and Thomas still gets to help.