Back To Reality

Paxton had his first follow up visit with his cardiologist today since being discharged from the hospital. Susanne could not believe how quickly time was passing by. The first thing that Paxton had checked was his weight and height. He appeared to have lost a few ounces because according to their scale he only weighed 7 lb 8 oz. The good news was that he was getting taller by the minute. He was already up to 21 inches long. He was for sure going to take after his daddy. Next, Paxton had a 12 lead ECG done to assess his heart rate and rhythm. He was such a trooper through it all. It had been a while since he was hooked up to all of those wires. Next, the cardiologist came in and did a physical exam. She spent extra time listening to his heart and lungs with her stethoscope to assess how he was doing. Finally, Paxton had an ultrasound done of his heart. He was so well behaved, especially during this portion of the visit. Susanne held his hand the whole time and he ended up falling asleep. The nurse informed Susanne that this was not very common especially for newborns. Usually they have to pull out a bottle, pacifier, or even give sugar water to help calm them. Paxton did not need any of that. He was a model patient. Overall, the cardiologist thought that Paxton looked stable for the moment. She said that the shunt that was placed during his surgery was working well. It was still wide open, but as he got bigger he would outgrow the shunt. It would be at that time that Susanne would need to watch him extra carefully for any clinical signs that he was not getting enough blood to his lungs. The cardiologist was certain that he would need a second surgery by the time he was six months old, but she was still not sure which surgical approach would be the most effective at this time. Paxton would have to come back for an evaluation every two weeks until it was time to move on to the next step. This brought Susanne back to reality. She had almost forgotten that Paxton was not out of the woods. Since he had arrived home, she was living in a fantasy world feeling that he was pretty much a normal child. She overlooked all of the future obstacles he had yet to face because he appeared to be doing so well now. Unfortunately, he was still going to need multiple surgeries and even with those corrections there were no guarantees that they would improve his overall prognosis.

After being at the doctor's office for over two hours, it was well past Paxton's time to get a NG feeding. Before Susanne got on the road to head home, she set up his feeding for him to receive durng their drive there. People definitely stared at Susanne during this whole process, especially when she pulled out her stethoscope in the parking lot to check his tube placement. Finally, they were well on their way.

On the way home, there was a trucker that had been tailgating Susanne for a short distance for no apparent reason. Once they were at a stop light, the trucker continued to inch forward until he was as close as he possibly could be to Susanne's car without hittng her. He was trying to intimidate her for no reason other than for personal satisfaction. This made Susanne really angry, especially since she had a newborn in the back seat that he could clearly see. If that wasn't enough, he continued to bully her by revving his engine and honking his horn. Susanne decided to comply for the sake of Paxton's safety, but she was intelligent enough to copy down all of the information from the truck he was driving. When she got home, she contacted the company about the incident and discussed her concerns. The company apologized profusely and promised that he would be punished for what he had done. Management knew exactly who the driver was and assured Susanne that he would be written up and dealt with appropriately. Susanne felt on top of the world that she got to have the last word. That guy won't know what hit him when he comes back tomorrow from his time on the road. Susanne was delighted with the idea that he would never forget her face.

Paxton spent the rest of the afternoon catching up on sleep. He was exhausted from being out all day. Susanne had attempted to run a couple of errands before getting home which proved to be quite the challenge, especially with Paxton receiving his NG feeding. There was a sharp learning curve for sure.

Moppy stopped by in the evening to start learning how to administer Paxton's NG feedings. She would be coming by every night this week to get as much practice as possible before Susanne had to go back to work. After Paxton was taken care of, Moppy went out to grab them some dinner. They had a nice time catching up with each other before Moppy had to head home.

Paxton could not wait until tomorrow because he was too excited about getting to meet his Aunt Jill for the first time. She was coming all the way down from New York to spend the rest of the week with them. Yay!