So May 14th, Cam became the new recipient of separated fingers. After a long 5.5 hours in the operating room, a mishap with the type of intubation they used, 14 hours in the ICU because he needed to remain intubated, and two hard, bright blue, Elmo casts later, we had one cranky Cam, but underneath those casts there were fingers. The surgeon said everything on the surgery end went wonderful. His finger separation went smooth, and they were able to give him a great outcome. Overall we spent 4 days in the hospital for this surgery, and then flew back home. I won't say that Cam was his sweet, silly self once we were home, but he quickly progressed back to his norm, and life with two large, hard, casts became easy.
Of course things don't always stay smooth sailing, because then that just wouldn't be our life......so the week before Cam was to head back to Boston for the cast removal he became ill. We thought he may have had a shunt malfunction, so we traveled to Winston to find out that it was just a stomach virus, and that it would resolve on its own. Over the next few days, his stomach virus seemed to disappear but he still had a poor appetite and didn't really want to eat, and for me that is the worst thing. I already feel that Cam is small, and even though he is healthy, when he eats it makes me feel better, but when he gets in those modes where he refuses food, or throws it up, I get anxious. So Friday I scheduled a swallow study for him, to make sure that he didn't have any issues with his esophagus. He fought tooth and nail through the study, and so how accurate it was is still up in the air, but what they did see was completley fine, and as of now his esophagus is still functioning fine. I worry about all of that because of his esophageal atresia repair he had when he was just a newborn, because unfortunately one of the things that can happen is that a stricture develops in the esophagus and it needs to be dilated. Not a huge deal, but still something I wasn't wanting to deal with, especially right before his scheduled cast removal. So luckily for now, no problems with the esophagus. Just one picky little boy. And to top all of this off, Saturday morning he woke up with a very runny nose, and a cough.
So Sunday finally gets here, and Cam and I prepare for this plane flight alone. He still has a yucky upper respiratory virus, but isn't too cranky.This was the first time I had flown alone with Cameron, and something in my mind told me that it would be just fine. I had this expectation that everything would go smooth, and that I would conquer this trip with no issues......BOY WAS I WRONG!!!!! We made it to the airport Sunday, Paul said his goodbyes, then Cam and I headed to check in. We made it through a very crowded security and to our gate just in time to board the plane. I decided that two carry on's would be easy to handle on my own, but that plus pushing Cam's stroller, plus having to hold him and fold the stroller at the base of the plane, started this flight off in an already frustrating mode. We got on the plane and sat in our window seat, squished between a large gentleman that sat in the middle and an older lady on the aisle seat that continuously asked me if Cam had whooping cough when he would cough. She was worried because she said her immune system was very weak, and his cough sounded very much like whooping cough to her. I assured her that he just had a cold and that there would be no way I would bring my toddler on a plane with whooping cough(some people really make me want to be violent, and I am not a violent person).
After sitting for about 10 minutes the plane begins to depart. We move about 20 feet and then the plane proceeds to pull back into the concourse. The pilot then comes over the speakers to say that there was a ton of air traffic over Washington DC and that we wouldn't be able to take off for an estimated 1 hr. 40 minutes. At this point Cam is already frustrated, we are super cramped, I have no room, my giant 7 month pregnant belly makes it difficult to maneuver, and I'm sweating something horrible. I almost started crying then, but held it together. I knew that I couldn't loose it yet. So luckily the plane only sat for an hour before deciding to leave again, and once we were in the air, Cam thankfully fell asleep. It was a very loud sleep, because his congestion didn't make an already tight upper airway and better, and so he did some serious snoring, but at least he wasn't crying!! He woke up about 30 minutes before we were landing in a horrible mood. He was hungry, so I somehow pulled a bottle together for him. He drank it down, and in about 10 minutes threw it all back up.....all. over. me. I was mortified. I had no way to help him, to help myself, to clean anything.....it was horrible. It was over with that....I let the tears fall. The man next to me asked if he could do anything, but he couldn't, and I was so frustrated that I wouldn't have accepted it anyway. Luckily we only had about 15 minutes left in the plane, so once we landed and got off, I put Cam in the stroller, ran to the restroom, semi cleaned myself up, and headed toward the gate to be picked up by some friends that we were staying with in Boston.
The rest of the trip was fine. Monday morning Cam got his casts off, we got fitted for his splints, and headed back to our friends to stay the night before our departure from Boston the next morning. Cam's new fingers looked really great, and I was excited that this first step to 10 fingers was finally over!!!!!! We had a wonderful flight home on Tuesday. The seat next to us on the plane stayed open, so we had alot more room, and Cam was much happier during this trip. It was not 100% comfortable for me, because being pregnant on a plane isn't the most fun ever, but with Cam being happy and no throw up, I will say it was 10,000 times better than the plane ride there.
We have been home three days, and Cam uses his fingers marvelously well. Almost like he's had three seperate fingers forever. We did take him to the peds this week, and he does have a sinus infection, but he seems to be handling it well, and hopefully his congestion will clear up here soon. They called from Boston this week to let us know that his next seperation surgery will be October 30th. So we will have an even older toddler and a newborn on the next trip......Are we crazy or what? :) Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes during Cam's surgery. We truley appreciate everyone that loves our sweet little boy, and are grateful for the support we recieve during these hectic times.
