Parker Home In Time To See Nana and Gaga

Parker is finally home from the hospital. Actually, we did beg that they let us bring the little guy home yesterday and they obliged. It was a difficult couple of days but Parker as always made it so much easier for us.

We went into the bone marrow transplant unit (it was the only bed they had available for us) on Tuesday at five in the afternoon. We actually stayed in the room that Parker will live for the 30-45 days during the gene therapy procedure. It houses the actual isolation area along with a room surrounding it for one of us to stay in and sleep. It is definitly much different then Sick Kids in Toronto but it does the job it should.

Parker was quite quickly placed on an IV to give him fluids in hopes that his veins expand and make the procedure of inserting a central line into his vein more easily. They found a vein quite quickly in his arm so that the pain (delore in Italian) was minimal. Mommy stayed for a couple of hours with me before going home. I did not want her walking back to the residence in the dark. The IV was attached to a long tube and with Parker as active as he is I was afraid that he would tangle himself in it while he slept (overly cautious father) so with every movement that Parker made I opened my eyes and checked in on him. For that reason, and the fact that I am not accustomed to sleeping in a small hospital bed with my shoes on in a very warm room I did not sleep. Was I tired? Yes, but I know that any other parent would have done the same thing. At 7:15am, my wife arrived at the hospital to see us as Parker had his surgery just after 8am.

When they came for the little monkey, mommy gave Parker a big kiss and daddy carried him along side the doctors and nurses who would perform the surgery to the pre-op room. Parker looked around the whole time catching the smiles of every doctor and nurse that he passed.

When we did arrive at the pre-op, Parker sat patiently on the hospital bed that was waiting there for him. The anesthesiologist came soon after and inserted a liquid into his IV. I wondered what was so funny as Parker began to laugh uncontrollably while she did this. Then she told me it was the medication. So, as she took Parker from me and he looked at me as she walked away it made it a little easier seeing him smile and laugh over her shoulder.

After I returned to the room my wife and I came home so I could take a quick shower and change my clothes. When we did return to the hospital, my wife waited in the hallway in anticipation for her little boy to return to her. All of a sudden we saw Dr. Aiuti with out little man in his arms as a nurse pulled the IV pole behind him. Of course my wife and I ran to him. "It went very well", he told us. "It will probably be a difficult afternoon for us since Parker will most likely be in some pain and quite tired."

To be honest, it was not that difficult at all. Parker slept and watched movies with his mother and me for most of the afternoon. It was funny because at exactly 7pm, Parker stood up in his crib and all at once he had all of the energy back that we had come accustomed to.

Parker received quite a bit of fluid (sugar and salt) through a IV for the next 24 hours, so as a result, he was not that thirsty or hungry. That night, Parker had some extra cables attached to him to monitor his respiratory rate and heart rate after his surgery. It was nice seeing numbers that were normal for a child his age instead of the ones we were accustomed to seeing when he was first diagnosed with ADA deficiency.

Again, I asked my wife to go home before it got dark as I wanted her to get some sleep. Parker slept quite well, and I was able to get a good four hours of rest throughout the night. When my wife did arrive at 7am in the next morning I went home to grab a couple more hours of sleep before returning. I had planned on asking if we could take Parker home that day (yesterday) as he was doing extremely well and we wanted to surprise his Nana and Gaga. They had not expected to see him as they were coming in to Milano after visiting hours.

The team did oblige our request and Parker got to come home for the afternoon before his Nana and Gaga arrived. I know that they had worried that Parker would forget who they were but as soon as they came in the door Parker crawled over to Gaga, pulled himself up and requested to be put over his shoulder. It was a nice surprise for both Nana and Gaga as well as the little monkey. It will definitely make life alot easier with them here.

Parker is currently taking a nap, so I thought it would be a good time to write today's article. Ciao!