Another case of the 'Mondays'

Well everyone, it's been a week since I last let you know about post surgery life. It seems that it's good to be home, but I've got a few kinks to work out.

I'm having a bit of a struggle with my "slim fast" (aka Portagen - low fat formula) diet... we're not sure if I'm having some acid reflux issues or if my tummy is really picky about the kinds of food I eat (I guess I should really start learning how to express myself more clearly to my parents and Dr's - it's like I can't form the words just right to explain how I feel).

Because of my "slim fast" woes, I had a follow up appointment that went from being an expected hour long engagement to about a four and a half hour ordeal. Thus the title: "Another case of the 'Mondays' - it all began like this:

8:30am - arrive at Children's Hospital for x-rays....9:30am finally receive x-rays (big fiasco with Kaiser insurance and Children's hospital to blame).
9:35am - check in for our 9:30am Cardiology appointment - which we would have been early for beside the afore mentioned road bump.
10:00am - finally see the Dr's - they voice their concerns about my lack of dietary zeal, hoping that I'm not getting dehydrated and thinking that I may need some Zantac to help me with a possible case of acid reflux disease (they tried to give me Zantac after surgery, Mom doesn't think I ever actually took it - moments after administering it, they would find it on my shirt...hmmm).
10:00 - 11:45am - continue with the discussions which included the Dr's throwing out the idea of admitting me again as an inpatient... Mom and Dad quickly shot that down and said they would try as many things as possible to get me up to speed again without having to see me in the hospital bed again so soon - however, they need to prove that they can get my fluids up in the next few days in order to keep their end of the bargain. The Dr's then requested that I have labs done once again to rule out any crazy infections...so down to the lab we trekked.

Just to show to what lengths Mom and Dad are willing to go to get me to eat my 'slim fast' - they added cherry Kool Aid (Dr approved of course) to my formula... I really liked it from the get go, but proceeded to deposit it back onto my shirt (and Dad's) shortly there after.

Noon - Mom and Dad check me in at the lab.
12:30pm - they finally called me back to get my blood work done.
1:00pm - after two failed attempts at finding a vein and a call from Ivan for reinforcements for the blood draw, they were finally able to do a finger prick in order to get the blood samples they needed to fulfill the required tests.
By 1:15pm Mom, Dad and I journeyed back to the car in a bit of a daze, not to mention that I was hungry!! My parents were not expecting such a long stay and had not packed enough Portagen for the WHOLE morning - so there we all were, thinking, "hmmm... The Dr's want me to be eating more, but because of them, we were far from the sustenance I needed!"
Well, once we got home, things began to look up.... we were all back in our familiar environment and best of all, Boscoe was there to welcome us!

Boscoe says, "Where have you guys been, I've been worried sick!"

Since we've been home tonight, my eating seems to be taking an upward course, but it's only been about eight hours since we arrived back at home. My parents are hoping that we can keep this up so that I'll be getting the allotted amount of calories and fluids for the day. Otherwise, I am being very pleasant for Mom and Dad - I've found that my swing has become a loyal friend (as long as the batteries hold up).

See, you can't get me down for too long just because of a digestive mystery.

I hate to leave you all thinking that things are really rough, my incision is healing nicely and I got the stitches taken out from the chest tubes. I'm returning to my adorable little self minus an eating related episode or two per day.
Thanks again for all of the positive thoughts and prayers being sent our way.
Tomorrow is another chest x-ray and Wednesday we will review those findings with our cardiologist to see if our actions to that point are proving effective.
Bye for now!

My reaction to finding out about more procedures in the next few days... yikes!