Surprise!

Our family has traveling to Philadelphia down to a science - packing, getting to the airport, going through security, flying, catching the train, and of course walking to the hotel...........WAIT!  Back that up!  Did I say walking?  Surprisingly, not this time.  Yup.  That's right, Becky let us take a taxi from the train station to the hotel.  Which meant that I did not have to carry a backpack, three suitcases and Tristan.  Shewwwwwww.....it was nice.  It was glorious.  It was everything I had hoped it would be and more...right down to the interesting smell in the cab.

Now...I wonder why Becky let us take the taxi?  Was it the colder weather?  An early Valentine's Day gift?  Perhaps it was the plea that I posted on Facebook asking everyone to text Becky that she should take a taxi this time? (Great responses by the way, Becky loved each of them.)  Or maybe the reason Becky let us take a taxi is the fact that she is 13 weeks pregnant?  Ooppsss...I guess that's not a secret anymore.

Anyway back to us in Philadelphia...we found out before we left Detroit that the Ronald McDonald House did not have a room available.  So the taxi took us straight to the hotel...hello 17th floor!  After we checked in, we went to the local pizza place and got some yummy slices.

After dinner and a quick stop at the local market for some snacks we settled into the hotel room for the night.  Becky tortured the rest of us by insisting on watching the Westminster Dog Show...you've never seen someone get so excited for some small bearded dog to win a category...lucky us, it's a two day show...so I can tell you what we'll be doing Tuesday night, as well. 

Let's move on...to day two of our trip.  Tuesday morning (Valentine's Day) we got up and headed over to CHOP for the usual x-ray, visit with surgeon, visit with anesthesia and blood work.  If you remember our prior post titled, "Always Travel With a Nanny", important conversations are very difficult to comprehend with two fighting children in the room.  This trip we would like to thank the late Steve Jobs and everyone from Apple.  Their great ingenuity has made it possible to comprehend what the surgeon needed to tell us because there was glorious silence from our enraptured children.

The surgeon gave us some very surprising news.  Apparently sometime since Tristan's last surgery his second VEPTR device broke off from his vertebrae, breaking off a piece of Lamia (not sure if that is how that is spelled or not.)  So poor little guy had a broken bone at some point and we didn't know it.  This of course will mean that Tristan can not just have a normal expansion on the two devices.  Instead, he will have a third incision where Dr. Flynn will attempt to either reconnect at the same place (if it has healed) or he will go above or below creating a new place to secure the VEPTR.  This means a slightly more lengthy procedure and perhaps an extra day at the hospital.  (Hopefully, we will still catch our flight back...I won't think about that right now.)

Obviously, we'll know more after surgery and I promise this time we'll update sooner than later...so you aren't all worried.  What I do know is that we check in for surgery at 11am (yes, I know this is MUCH later than we have ever checked in before.)  Poor Tristan can't eat after 11pm at night...so I don't even want to think about the amount of tears and "I'm hungry!" responses we will hear tomorrow.  Once he checks in at 11am, he'll have his IV placed and then he has to have IV antibiotics for an hour before he can go back to the OR.  I hope that we'll be in a recovery room by 4pm...it is no doubt going to be a long day for everyone. 

We'll ask again that you please say prayers that Dr. Flynn and his team will be guided by the Great Physician, that the fixing of this broken bone will be smooth and that the expansion will give better alignment to the spine.  Wait...I've got to say something else here or Becky will remind me that one sentence does NOT make a paragraph.  Um, I guess that rant officially makes this a paragraph.

Thanks for traveling with us on this journey,
The West Family