Kieran's Big Adventure

On Monday April 12th, we headed to Tripler Army Medical Center dark and early.  As opposed to bright and early of course-it was still dark when we left.  We got Kieran checked into the Surgical Admissions Center at 6am.  Kieran had his vitals taken, we answered a few more questions, met with one of the ortho docs and got his smashing hospital jammies for him.

We waited around in the pediatric waiting room for awhile with him until they were ready to bring him back.  He had fun playing with the toys while waiting-poor kid was completely unaware of what was coming up.  We never explained anything to him about it-which looking back, probably wasn't the best idea, but really, how do you explain surgery to a 19 month old?

Before surgery-and the doctors initials on the body part for surgery.  I thought it was a little funny.  Kieran was disturbed by the marker on his thumb.

After waiting for a bit, they collected us and a bunch of other patients and took us back to the pre-op room.  What was initially a sleepy, quiet room with just a few patients in it quickly became a buzzing, busy place as nurses and anesthetists rushed about getting their patients ready.

We talked to Kieran's anesthesiologist for a bit about what his plan for Kieran was.  Since Kieran is so young, he did not get an IV started until after he had already gone under with gas.  Kieran seemed to like his anesthesiologist, even letting him hold him while we were still there!  Kieran initially got gas anesthesia and then IV anesthesia.  The plan was to just place a tube that would sit at the back of his throat-but we were also told that if they felt an endotrach tube was necessary, they'd place one.  I honestly don't know if they ended up doing that or not.

The attending doctor also stopped in to see us while in pre-op.  He told us that although he initially didn't plan on it, he was definitely going to do a pin in the thumb and cast Kieran's hand-and then keep us in Hawaii until the cast was ready to be removed.  Oh, and the ENT also stopped by to reconfirm the tubes and answer any other questions.

(As a side note, Kieran's ortho doctor both looks and sounds like Owen Wilson, so I have a hard time not laughing when I see him-I always think of Owen Wilson's character from Meet the Parents.)

Shortly after that, they took Kieran back to the OR and we went to the waiting room.  We waited for what seemed like forever-I read almost an entire Janet Evanovich book.  We got a call in the waiting room after we'd been in there for about 30-40 minutes-they had finished with tubes and had been working on his thumb for about 20 minutes, with about 1 1/2 hours left to go.

 After he was done, I went back to the recovery room to hold him while he woke up from the anesthesia.  He did really well-not too much crying or thrashing about.  He was very, very sleepy.  The few times he roused himself, it was to ask to have his cast off.  He didn't like it at all.

We moved up into the peds ward, so Kieran could stay overnight to be monitored.  He finally woke up around 2 or so-and had some food, some water and then, went to the playroom!  He kept asking to have the cast off, but seemed to play around it well enough.  He was pretty doped up on Tylenol with codeine and Motrin.

The rest of the evening went ok.  Kieran had to have another dose of IV antibiotics, which he did not like at all.  He was not happy when they hooked the IV back up to his port.  He played again after that, gobbled down dinner, and then settled into the crib and luckily, slept most of the night-he even mostly slept through his last dose of IV antibiotics.

We got discharged from the hospital around 830 the next morning and Kieran has been doing great ever since!  Running around, playing, overall, not acting like he just had a body part removed!  I will continue to post more pictures of him (and us) in Hawaii.

More Hawaii...

Busy weekend!  We've been trying to enjoy ourselves as much as possible before Kieran's surgery, since I'm not sure how much we will be able to do afterwards.

Yesterday (Saturday) we decided to go running shoe shopping.  This can be a pretty detailed process.  We both got fitted into the proper type of shoes (I actually did a re-fit) and bought shoes and inserts.  I got one pair and some new inserts.  Jason got 2 pairs of shoes and inserts.  We won't talk about how expensive running shoes are.  :)

We then went to Pali Lookout.  Pali Lookout is this, well, lookout that is incredibly windy.  Hard to walk windy.  Nearly blowing you over windy.  Hold on to your skirt windy!

And, one more picture from Pali Lookout-

Those are chickens.  They are in a jungle-ish area.  (Just beyond the parking at Pali Lookout).  Brendan took one look at them and said, "Chickens!  In the jungle.  I have never seen jungle chickens before!"  So, yes, these are the jungle chickens of Hawaii.  It's a rare breed, I'm sure.

We then went and did a little more shopping, and had fish tacos for dinner! Yum.

Sunday, we went to Pearl Harbor.  Unfortunately, the Arizona Memorial is closed for construction right now-they are re-doing the theater and working on the dock.  Luckily, it is re-opening on the 15th of April, so we can go back!

We looked around the bookstore and picked up a new book-war stories from the Pacific.  One of the men featured in the book was there signing books and we got his signature (which was on a stamp, lol).  We talked to him a bit-turns out he's going to be at the Ortho dept tomorrow at Tripler...perhaps we'll see him in the hall.

We then drove over to Ford Island and took a look at the Utah Memorial-we didn't get to see that last time in Hawaii.  After a quick stop and some pictures, we headed to the Pacific Aviation Museum.  We figured the boys would love the planes...and we were right.  (We went last year, and Brendan remembered, but Kieran of course was too young).

Brendan gave us the most compelling explanation ever of Pearl Harbor.  After getting confirmation from Mama about the "different terpeders" he then explained exactly how Pearl Harbor was attacked.

"Planes shot terperders in the water and they hit the ships, BAM!  And then the ships shot the planes.  Then these planes shot more at the ships from the air and BAM!  And the ships shot those planes.  And then those planes shot more planes and BAM!  There was fire.  And that wasn't nice."

While he explained this, he was pointing to a map that outlined the route of attack.  I only wish I had a picture of this.  He was very passionate about explaining it.  He is very concerned about the ships and planes that are on fire.  He watched a short film before touring the museum about the attack on Pearl Harbor.  His eyes were about as big as could be.  In a way it's funny...I limit the TV shows he can watch, not allowing cartoons that depict violence, etc, but I was fine with him watching the Pearl Harbor film.  I hope that he can gain an appreciation of history, and hopefully, love it as much as I do!

 We finished up our day by having lunch at the Aviation Museum, driving around Ford Island (um, were those restricted area signs?!?!) and Pearl Harbor Naval Station before heading back to Hickam to have some downtime and dinner.

Hawaii, Day 3

We got to sleep in today!  And by sleep in, I actually mean sleep in!  Normally, "sleeping in" means that we get to sleep til, oh, maybe 8am.  MAYBE.  But today....we got up at 9am!  It felt wonderful to sleep so long-although I swear I could have spent half the day sleeping!

We decided to make today a shopping day-one advantage of having to go back to the States.  We headed out to a nearby outlet mall to check stuff out-and had a great shopping day!

Brendan needed new jeans-all of his 3T's were both too short and too tight in the waist.  Kieran needed sandals.  Mom and Dad didn't actually need anything, but walked away with way too much a few carefully chosen things.

Both boys behaved wonderfully today-even while out shopping all day.  They took lots of "pretend" rides on those little coin-operated ride thingies...

They did get to take an actual ride on one each, and then apparently got a free ride on one-Mama (my mom, the boys' grandma) shook the ride and it suddenly started working.  Not sure which ride that was though. 

We found out today that we need to be at the hospital at 6 am on Monday for Kieran's surgery.  I am feeling a little anxious about it-he's scheduled for 2 hours in the OR.  He is having the tubes placed in his ears first, then the hand surgery starts.  He's going to be an inpatient for the first night-and I'll be staying overnight with him.  I'm definitely worried about making sure he's not in pain.  I believe they can give him morphine (yikes!) in the hospital, and then most likely Tylenol with codeine and/or Motrin for pain relief once he is discharged.

I also want to say thank you so much to friends and family who have been sending us well-wishes-it's so appreciated!  I am also a bit saddened by a few who have not bothered-though even sadder, not surprised.
Anyways, I am glad to know that there are so many people out there thinking of us and more importantly, of Kieran.

Ah, yes, and Kieran.  That boy.  He says (among several other words), "Daddy", "brother" and now....."Mama."  That would not be Mama as in me, his mother.  No.  He doesn't call me anything.  Today though, he pointed to my mom, and very clearly said, "Mama" and grinned.  Little stinker.  But I know he loves me best anyways! 

(My boys both call my mom "Mama."  Not really sure how that started.  My dad is Papa.)

Not sure what the rest of the weekend has in store for us...but I'll be sure to update as often as possible.

Aloha!

After some planning, a lot of last-minute scrambling, and a looooong day of travel, we are here in Honolulu, Hawaii.

We left Okinawa on Wednesday morning, flew to Tokyo, had a layover, and flew to Honolulu, arriving.....Wednesday morning!  Gotta love the time difference coming this way.

We've checked into Tripler Army Hospital, spent the day running a few errands, and are now seriously jetlagged, sitting in our hotel.

And....I went to Target today!  Twice! 

It's so funny.  When I am in Oki, other than a few times here and there, I do not miss stuff like Target.  I just don't care all that much about not having it readily available.  (My wallet thanks me for this.)  However, now that I am actually here, I will scour that store up and down, along with every other store I have time to get to.  It's really rather amusing.

However, our primary mission here is to get Kieran's surgery all taken care of.  We have pre-op appointments tomorrow and surgery set up for April 12th.  I am anxious, nervous, excited, everything.  I don't know much about the details of Kieran's surgery-I anticipate finding out more tomorrow.  I am surprised at my outward level of  calmness...I attribute that to knowing for the past 19 months that this day was forthcoming.

My mom, wonderful as she is, has decided to join us in Hawaii to both help out with Brendan, but also to help with caring for Kieran, and to help take a stressful load off of us.  I am so very appreciative of the fact that she took time off away from work and time away from the rest of the family to make sure that we were taken care of. 

I will be sure to update as much as possible.  :)