Pre-op Appointment

On Tuesday Owen had his pre-op appointment with the anesthesiologist at the hospital. He has never had to do this before, but after the respiratory issues he had following his cleft lip repair, we thought it necessary to discuss his surgery with an anesthesiologist. This is also the longest surgery, so obviously he will be asleep for longer than he ever has been. Basically what we learned is that they don't know why he reacted the way he did following the last surgery. The only light he was able to shed on the situation was that perhaps his trachea was particularly irritated because whenever someone has facial surgery or surgery on your neck the intubation tube gets moved around a lot as the surgeon works in that area. The other possibility is that the nerve block shots that Owen was given in his face to help with post-surgical pain could have made it difficult for him to feel that he needed to swallow. The build up of saliva would make it harder to breathe. We are hoping not to have any issues with anesthesia this time around.

Owen will most likely be having an epidural placed to minimize post-surgical pain. For his past 3 urology surgeries he has had coddle blocks, but may need something more substantial for pain since this is a much more extensive surgery.

The anesthesiologist also ordered pre-op bloodwork. Fabulous, since watching blood being taken from your one year old is excruciating. At least the nurses in the lab at the hospital downtown were good. Extremely good. Unfortunately they probably have a lot of peds blood draws. I called Dr. Gazak's office later that afternoon to get the results, but the nurse wasn't in. I didn't hear anything from Judy, who is usually great about things like that so I figured all was well. Then last evening I got a call from her saying that Owen's white blood cell count was a little bit low. I freaked out. All of the reasons that I could think of that I have heard of low white blood cell count came flooding to mind and I was terrified. I asked her how low? Are they dangerously low? She said that now, they are just a little low and that Dr. Gazak thinks that it is because of the long term (a year) daily antibiotic treatment that Owen has received to prevent kidney infection. Without getting into too much detail, the particular antibiotic that he has been on has two components, one of which when used for a long period of time can lower the white count. The solution? Today Owen started a new antibiotic that does not have that component in it. That should fix the problem and all should be well. Am I convinced? No, I am extremely worried. However, I also trust Dr. Gazak and know if there was even the slightest concern that something more serious could be wrong with Owen he would have had us at the hospital performing every test in the book. He says this is the problem and gave us a solution, so I am trying as hard as I can to quell my worries.