Always One Step Behind

This morning, Susanne felt like she was always one step behind. She purposely got up early so that she would have enough time to get ready and take care of Paxton with plenty of time to spare. This didn't work out as planned. She was starting to wonder how other people knew how much time to plan for when needing to be somewhere by a certain time. It never failed that on those mornings in particular, Paxton would need extra attention in some regard. He would either have multiple gagging episodes where Susanne would have to hold him and soothe him until he calmed done or he would have a neverending dirty diaper run. She was obviously late. She made sure to call the office so that they would know she was on her way. She offered for them to reschedule, but they didn't think it was necessary. She felt horrible, especially because she knew what the aftermath was when her own clients showed up late to their appointments. Most people probably didn't realize that it could sometimes throw the entire schedule out of whack, therefore causing the doctor to run behind the entire day.
Today just when she started feeling like she was making head way, Susanne ran into another problem. There was major construction taking place on the main road that she was traveling on. When she finally arrived at Paxton's doctors' office, she noticed that there was one parking spot available. It was a risky spot because the bumper of the car was right near a fire hydrant. At this point, Susanne was willing to risk it. Luckily, as she was walking away from her car, the gentleman that had parked in front of her was leaving and suggested that she take his spot. So she did just that. The check-in process took forever. Susanne was thankful when they finally made it to the waiting room. She apologized profusely when they were called back.

Paxton had an appointment with the otolaryngologist, also known as an ENT, who would be surgically placing his bilateral myringotomy tubes, or more commonly known as ear tubes. The nurse that initiated the appointment got a medical history on Paxton. She was dumbfounded to say the least. When she heard that Paxton would be headed up to Boston for his reconstructive heart surgery, she questioned that decision. She proceeded to go into a long explanation as to why she felt that Paxton should come to Children's National Medical Center for his upcoming procedure. She was trying to be helpful, but ended up sticking her nose where it didn't belong. Susanne had to politely inform her that the procedure that Paxton would require could only be performed by either the cardiac surgeon at Children's Hospital at Boston or by a cardiac surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. She proceeded to try to convince her that the cardiac surgeion at their hospital could probably do the surgery because he trained at Boston. The ENT, who also trained at Boston, gave Susanne a handout on the cardiac surgeon that worked at the hospital and put in his two cents on the situation. Susanne decided to just nod and smile, but secretly tune him out.

Paxton was examined by the ENT. He confirmed the presence of fluid in Paxton's middle ear. He did a thorough job of explaining the procedure Paxton would have performed. He even showed her the tubes that would be inserted into his ear canal. Susanne was a visual learner so this really helped her to understand the surgery much better.

Susanne finally finished up with the appointment and headed home. Paxton had a therapy session scheduled for the afternoon. Unfortunately, the traffic that she encountered on her way caused her to show up to the house right when the session should have started. She knew that this would not be a good set-up for Paxton, but they gave it a valiant effort.

Paxton was overly sensitive today. He would cry anytime Susanne or his therapist tried to work in or around his mouth. He fought with them tooth and nail. The funny thing was that when Susanne would give him a break, she could immediately get him to smile. The easiest way to do this was to tell Paxton that he was, "SO BIG" while raising his arms up over his head as if he was calling a touchdown. He even laughed a few times. They started to wonder if Paxton was pulling one over on them.

After therapy, Susanne wanted to relax, but there was too much to do. She needed to put Paxton down for a nap, give him medication, set up his next feeding, take care of the animals' needs, make herself something for lunch, and pump. By the time she was finished, it was evening.

Susanne decided that instead of sitting down in front of the television, she would try to tie up some loose ends. Her main goal of the evening was to finish two reference letters that she had been asked to write for two of the technicians that she worked with. They were trying to get into veterinary school and requested that she be one of the veterinarians that evaluated them. She felt honored to do so.