A Visit to the ER

Well, the Hovannisian family is definitely taking full advantage of our health care benefits in 2012 - - maternity care, childbirth, Grant's hospitalizations, surgeries, chemo.... Damon decided he needed to partake in the health care claims as well.  Around 1am today, I drove him to the ER of Scottsdale Healthcare, where he was diagnosed with kidney stones.  Thankfully they were small enough (although the painscale was probably a nine) that he didn't need surgery, and he was back home around 3:30am.

Alexa was initially very scared when we dropped Damon off at the hospital, as she was concerned that (like Granty) he wouldn't be coming home.  Thankfully we had a surprisingly coherent and production discussion - especially for 1am - about Emergency Rooms versus hospitalizations; I simply explained that ER's are a doctor's office when the regular doctors are sleeping.  It helped when I told her she had been to an ER as a baby (horrible case of croup), to which she exclaimed, "And I'm a healthy kid!"  I think Damon and I will be having a lot of conversations with Alexa over the next few years whenever she's sick, going to the doctor, etc... Sigh.

In a bit of irony, a nurse working last night was the same one who had taken care of us when Grant was in the Pediatric ER at six-days old.  Jay was a phenomenal nurse who took great care of us - personally bringing up meds from the pharmacy, moving us from the ER to PICU after his shift ended (it ended up being a pretty hilarious transport because he had no idea where he was going since transporting patients was way outside his normal job responsibilities)....  He knew Damon looked familiar, and as soon as Damon began to jog his memory, Jay remembered Grant immediately.  Needless to say, he was devastated and saddened to find out what happened to Grant, and he was speechless to know that the white blood cell count from lumbar puncture that was diagnosed as meningitis was likely an indicator of the tumor.  Jay echoed exactly the same sentiments we heard at Phoenix Children's - never would they ever suspect a brain tumor in a six-day-old newborn.

It did bring a smile to my face to know that Jay remembered Granty - even at six-days old, he still left a lasting impression.  During that first hospitalization at Scottsdale Shea (not Phoenix Children's), the nurses in PICU fawned over Grant and loved having a newborn baby in their care.  I pulled up some of the pictures we had taken of Grant during the 'meningitis' hospital stay, and I just shook my head.  Alexa wanted us to bring him a toy, and she randomly selected a giraffe plush bowling pin for him.  The giraffe trend began well-before we even realized it.

It was love at first sight with the giraffe....

'Grant the Champ' showing his strength at just one week old.