Rudolph Saves the Day!

You've heard about Rudolph with his bright shiny nose who saved Christmas with his light that foggy night? Well, I'm here to tell you a different story about Rudloph saving the day. 

Kaderick needed surgery recently and on the list of things to include in his surgery bag was a soft comfort item such as a stuffed animal. While he has several stuffed animals, Kaderick really doesn't seem to have a favorite, but he had been asking for a Rudolph every time we asked him what he wanted for Christmas. I thought it would be a good opportunity to combine his comfort item and his reward for being good during surgery, so I began to search for a Rudolph. Who knew it would be hard to find in a price range I was willing to pay?!?! Finally, I located one on Amazon. Delivery was promised for a few days before surgery. Then, on the day it should have arrived, I received a notice that it was delayed and wouldn't arrive until after surgery. Now, some would not think it a big deal at all, but for some reason it was important to me to give him a Rudolph the morning of his surgery. Finances and availability prevented me from just running out and buying him one locally, but nothing prevented me from praying about it, so I said a little prayer that somehow it would get here in time. Sure enough....about 8pm, the evening before surgery, a knock sounded at the door and UPS delivered Rudolph! Just for kicks, I went online and tracked the package. According to UPS tracking system, Rudolph was sitting in a truck at a service center in rural PA! Say what you want, but this mommy is convinced it was a miracle! God knew just how important it was to me. Yes, Kaderick would have made it just fine without Rudolph, but mommy needed to know that a God who cared enough to get Rudolph here on time, could and would have that much and more care and concern for my baby boy. 

See, I'd really been somewhat distraught inside over this surgery. We'd been warned when Kaderick was diagnosed with mastocytosis, that if he ever had to have surgery, it would be very risky. There are so many things involved in surgery, anesthetics, and pain management that cause degranulation of the mast cells. In plain English that means severe allergic reactions and anaphylaxis. Rudolph arriving was just like God speaking directly to my heart and letting me know that everything was going to be okay. I still didn't like it, but there was a new calm and I was able to help transfer that calm to Kaderick who did positively amazing through the whole ordeal. 

We had a meeting with the anestheologist prior to surgery and he told us all the things they'd be doing to prevent mast cell flares or reactions. They also called in a second pediatric anesthetist and had several special nurses there for him. It was the hardest thing ever handing him over to them, but I knew he was in good hands with the medical team and ultimately in God's hands. 

Since he can't have any narcotic pain relief, they did a caudal (baby epidural) and a breathing tube along with several mast cell stabilizers in his IV. Children's Hospital was amazing and the whole team just loved Kaderick (who wouldn't?) 

First he had his inguinal hernia repair and then his dental work. His dentist said he has phenomenal hygiene, but between the Masto and all the antihistamines he has to take, his poor little teeth were in pretty bad shape. Two of them ended up having to be pulled and four others had extensive repair done on them. One was even abcessed  and we pray and hope was the cause of his recent lymph node swelling.  He was in surgery about 3 hours. Mommy and Daddy were both so unspeakably relieved when they came and told us he had done well and we could come see him. He was still sleeping, but once he awoke, about half an hour later and was able to eat and keep down a popsicle, we were able to take him home. The doctors said he behaved like a child who didn't have mastocytosis. Of course, this is probably partly due to the extensive protocol they followed and the prayers that went up for him! 

It's been a week today, he's still recovering, still has occasional pain at the incision site, but other than one trip to ER with post-surgical croup (probably caused by the tube or some allergen he breathed) he's done fantastic. The croup was pretty scary....he was gasping on every decent deep breath he took and crying because it hurt his chest so badly. Everyone kind of rushed in on him in the ER because they could hear he was struggling and all Kaderick did was look up at them, gasp, and say in his raspy little voice, "Where's the toys?" In pre-op, there had been a lot of toys to play with and that's pretty much all he remembered of the hospital. One of the nurses ran and got him a large stuffed doggie which Kaderick named "Cheeto." After a few hours of breathing treatments and some steroids to open up the airways, we were good to go again. 

And that's the story of how Rudolph saved the day for Kaderick and his family. Only in this case, we know it wasn't really Rudolpoh, it was Jesus! 

Playing toys in pre-op

In recovery

Going home! Still soooo sleepy!

Recovering with Rudolph and Cheeto. 

Balloons from friends.