And the decision is....

Surgery! Yup, one more to go before he will/can come home. This surgery is called Fundoplication: With this procedure, the physician wraps the upper part of the stomach (fundus) completely around the esophagus to form a collar-like structure.
The collar places pressure on the LES and prevents stomach fluids from backing up in to the esophagus. The main reason for having this surgery is to prevent acid reflux which could cause scarring at the ETF repair or the tracheotomy site. If these sites were to have common visits from the reflux fairy it would cause strictures as well as discomfort in Payson. If these strictures were to form they would need to be fixed surgically down the line. Now, if we do surgery the change in anatomy could cause Payson to have heightened swallowing difficulties, the tightening be too tight for Paysons body and has been proven not to cure GERD. So, why are we doing this again? ARRRR It is a no win situation whichever way we look at it.

As of now surgery is scheduled for 2/8, but that WILL change. Apparently, the bull horn I have been using hasn't been loud enough because they still haven't figured out how bad we want out. This is also known as hospitalitis. Ha, that word is mild for the case of get me outta here that has overwhelmed us! I thought being a royal pain in the rump to the surgeon and the doctors would force them to realize how badly we want to bring Payson home...Maybe I haven't put on the full pain factor yet. Hmmm, what can I do next? So, far I have had the surgeon paged every couple of hours, emailed him, threatened to sit on his desk until I see the whites of his eyes, called his secretary and bluntly given him crap when I see him, (we have a good relationship so I feel comfortable being so persistent with him). The PICU doctors should know better then to drag their feet when a parent asks consistently about the discharge date, how fast we can train, what is the least time needed to train, attended daily rounds about Payson and telling anyone who will listen we want out...Is this not enough? Didn't ya'll graduate from med. school? Seriously people I don't know what else to do to get my point across other than run naked in the hallways painted different colors with the words, "get me out of here" printed on my rump! Honestly, people! Can you tell I am frustrated? Boy, oh boy am I! Before Payson had his trach surgery they told us training takes 6 weeks. Well he has been trached 2 weeks now and still have no goal or discharge dates. This afternoon the nurse must have gotten tired of hearing me and had the social worker come in to discuss having a family meeting! So, our social worker is going to try to coordinate everyone to meet and get some answers! Hallelujah! I hope the next time I post I will have a date...here's to family meetings, being a royal pain, persistence and consistency!!!

Off to sit on the surgeon's car! (: Poor guy!