Day 1 - Cincinnati Adventure

Trying to wake up after his MRI

On to a famous restaurant - The Montgomery Inn

Mommy & Kai next to the river

Feeling better and eating like a pig

It's bedtime. Do I look tired to you?

Well, day one of our Cincinnati adventure is officially over and it wasn't half bad. Kai had an MRI appointment this morning at 8:00am so we woke up early and headed to Cincinnati Children's. We found out the plan was to put Kai under light sedation and finish the MRI quickly. Ah, how plans change! Kai fought the light sedation like a wild hyena so the doctor ordered a drug she said would put Kai out like a light. The drug went into Kai's IV and David and I were told to leave the MRI room and return to the recovery room in 45 minutes to 1 hour. Since we did not want to eat in front of Kai this morning (he was NPO), we headed to the cafeteria. About 15 minutes later we were startled by a nurse running up to our table (literally out of breath) who said that 3 people were looking for us and that we had to talk to the doctor on the phone (there was NO time to run back to radiology!) I tell you here and now that my heart almost jumped out of my chest. I grabbed her arm and demanded to know what was going on. Thank God, it was not as bad as it appeared. The drug that would surely put Kai to sleep, was not working. He was fighting (again) like a mad man and they needed to put him under general anesthesia now or wake him up completely. Of course, we gave permission for the anesthesia and then proceeded to clean the pee off ourselves where we had wet our pants.

When Kai got to recovery he was no where ready to wake up. The nurses kept looking at his chart and laughed that he might still be there tonight. The kid had enough drugs to tranquilize an elephant! Slowly but surely he came around and we went to finally meet our doc. Dr. Levitt and I have been emailing each other for 6 months. The man is amazing. He (and his mentor, Dr. Pena) are the world's foremost experts on anorectal malformations. Their patients come from all over the globe. Our 8 hour drive to Cincinnati was absolutely nothing compared to many others I have met over the internet. Unfortunately, Kai did not actually meet Dr. Levitt as he was sleeping on his daddy's shoulders during the entire visit. Oh well, at least we got to grill the doc without a wacky 3 year old running around.

We finally left the hospital around 3:30pm and we were STARVING (remember no breakfast or lunch by this time.) We had heard that Cincinnati had a famous barbecue restaurant on the river and we decided to try it. The Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse was incredible. Kai had finally woken up and we were lucky enough to get a table overlooking the water. The food was great and the view was beautiful.

We're back in the room now and David is about to cry because his beloved Alabama is getting schooled by Utah. Who knew they were so good? Ah well, all it takes is a sick kid to put things in perspective. Football, smootball...

Thanks for your prayers. Keep them coming for Monday. We have more tests coming up and a little surgery too. I'll keep you updated.