Boston Days 1 and 2

Nate has made no secret of the fact that he did not want to go to Boston. I talked with him a couple nights ago about it, trying to get him excited about the fllying on an airplane the first time, but he said he would rather take a train, and he didn't want to go to the hospital because it would hurt. Good points.

I borrowed a little wheelchair from work for Nate to use, and it is just the right size. When we got to the airport, he started learning how to make it go. In no time at all, he was whizzing around in circles. Our first flight was to New York, and before take off I was telling Nate what would happen. He told me he was scared, but I reassured him. Turns out he loved it! He especially loved any turbulence because it gave him "the belly tickles." As we flew into New York, we had a great view of the city, including the Empire State Building. Nate and I both loved that. We want to come back to New York to visit sometime. After landing, we had to race through the airport to get to our next plane, which was already boarding. On that flight, we got bumped up to first class! Then when we got to Boston, Nate had another new experience--riding in a cab. We went through like 4 tunnels on the way to the hotel, and Nate asked the cab driver to honk his horn like daddy does. :) The cab driver either didn't understand him or just ignored him.

We got to the hotel worn out. After a little rest, we headed out to find a restaurant. We walked about a mile and stopped in 3 places that were way too fancy for a five year old before finding a little cafe that had the best french toast and grilled cheese. :)

Day 2
As we were eating breakfast in the hotel lobby, Nate was already telling us he wanted to go home. (Well, he started last night.) But I reminded him he could wear his Halloween costume. Nate was a doctor (neurosurgeon, to be exact) for Halloween. Since we were traveling Halloween night, we took the kids to the zoo the night before. (Will try to post pictures soon.) And I told Nate he could wear his doctor costume to meet Dr. Warf, and he could say, "Hi, Dr. Warf, I'm Dr. Payne." He practiced it a lot. :)

We headed out to the hospital on the 11am shuttle for an 11:30 appointment. It was only 1.5 miles away, but we should have known the shuttle would take forever. We got checked in at 11:45. Dr. Warf himself came out to the lobby to get us. That is very different from any doctor visit we have ever had, especially with a specialist! Right on cue, Nate said, "Hi, Dr. Warf, I'm Dr. Payne," and Dr. Warf seemed pretty amused by him.

We went to his office, and besides Nate ramming his wheelchair into Dr. Warf's legs repeatedly, it was a good appointment. We reviewed all the information, and he talked about his plan. He will place a drain in Nate's brain, and while he is in there he will check his pressure. He does not think Nate has hydrocephalus, but if his pressure reads high, he will do the ETV. Either way, he will leave the drain in and then operate on Nate's back to find the leak and close it again. He wants to leave the drain in for 3 or 4 days, and he wants Nate to lay flat for 5 days. We will be in the hospital 7 days, and then he'd like for us to stay in town for another week after that. Neither surgery is terribly risky, believe it or not.

He then wanted to admit Nate (kind of a back door way of getting surgery this week instead of his next available surgery time of Dec. 9), but there were no beds available right then. They said we could just hang out for a couple of hours. We decided to, instead of catching the shuttle back to the hotel and having to turn right back around, we would just stay at the hospital. Nate was in a little wheelchair wearing a doctor costume, so he was like a minor celebrity, attracting a lot of attention. We didn't find any trains, but there was a cool mouse-trap-like thing in the lobby, and a magic show upstairs, and a great fish tank, and free Pac-Man. Nate did better than my mom and I did. We were bored and exhausted, but Nate was wheeling around like a madman. He ran into like 30 people. Something I never envisioned myself saying: "Nate, don't let you sandwich touch your wheels!"

Finally around 4:45 I went back up to the neuro office, and the nurse said she was just getting ready to call me because a bed came open. She told us to go to inpatient admitting, so we hauled all our stuff over there, and I checked in. She said someone would be with us in just a minute. An hour later, another nurse asked why we were there and what the name was. Yep, someone forgot about us. Within 5 minutes of that, we were up to our room.

A semi-private room.

I almost cried. Maybe that's silly, but I just wasn't anticipating that. Vanderbilt has only private rooms, and they are so nice. This hospital is different and is great, but that is one area that does not compare. The main reason I'm being a diva about this is that Nate is a terrible roommate. He is loud and throws tantrums over lots of things, especially late at night. And we are on the side of the room that does NOT have the bathroom, and I feel weird about crossing over there, so I have to go down the hall to use the bathroom or change clothes or wash my hands! That poor kid next to Nate is throwing up every few minutes, and his IV thing beeps for about 20 minutes of every hour, but Nate is a much worse roommate.

Tomorrow Nate will have an MRI, and he will have surgery on Thursday. Sounds like he will be inpatient until next Thursday, then we have to find some other place to stay for another week where Nate can continue his recovery before we fly home.

Today was rough, but I know better than to question whether we've made the right decision. God led us here for a reason, and I just need to take it a day at a time with the hope that Nate will be all better very soon.