On Friday morning, Frankie made a trip to a familiar place. He went in for a CAT scan to check out the configuration of his jaw. We meet with his ENT doctor on Wednesday to talk about possiblities to open Frankie's jaw wider. Right now, he can only open it about half an inch, maybe an inch at the most.
In order to get the CAT scan, Frankie had to go under anesthesia. There's just no way that boy would hold still for 30 minutes. So we went back to familiar territory -- the pre-surgery area at Children's Hospital Minneapolis.
There was a time when we seemed to go thru this department on a monthly basis. Luckily, those days are long gone. After 15+ trips into the little room with the gas masks, you start to lose count.
Frankie is a real pro thru the whole process. He cried a little when he saw exactly where we were going in the hospital, although he usually knows what's going to happen when he wakes up and doesn't get his usual dose of cereal and juice.
But the rest of the time, he was happy and laughing and exploring the whole unit. Most of the nurses there have seen him at one time or another. They're always delighted to see what an amazing boy he is growing up to be.
Here's a comparison of Frankie in Dec 2000 (in the green PJs) and Frankie now (having graduated to the blue PJs very recently). That picture from 2000 is always a little sad to look at. He looked so happy and bright-eyed, but had a rotten stomach surgery in his future.
On this Friday, we were out of the hospital in about 2 1/2 hours. No big deal at all. As a reward this weekend, we went swimming on Friday night (complete with a Happy Meal afterwards) and went to see CARS on Saturday....
