Happy Halloween! I'm a fishie!

these pics and more available here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/Halloween1?authkey=EKGV7y-Ag3A#

Video a Go Go

Finally, a few videos... well, two. More later.

My hero -- part two

Photos here. Videos after we edit them.

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So it's been way too long since I posted the end to this story. Suffice to say that Naomi is still my hero...

So we take Naomi to see Dr. Atkinson, who apparently has a better tech than Dr. W does. She was a cardiologist in her native China. And she sees in Naomi a coarctation of the aorta. Basically, the aorta comes up out of the heart, feeds the head and right arm, then the left arm and lungs I guess, then makes an arch as it feeds the lower half of the body. In a coarctation, that arch is blocked off, meaning less blood gets to the lower half of the body. When that happens, the kidneys tell the heart, hey, I'm not getting enough blood here, raise the pressure. So the heart works harder, but then the blood pressure in the upper half of the body gets to be way too high. This is dangerous and must be repaired surgically.

This is all mitigated somewhat by the fact that Naomi's patent ductus is still open. That usually closes either in utero or shortly after birth (I forget which is correct) and feeds blood to the lower half of the body until it closes. Naomi's being still open wasn't a good thing, but it had the benefit of getting more blood to the lower half of her body and keeping her out of -- brace yourself for two scary words -- heart failure. But the PDA can close at any time and if it does, that's very very bad.

Naturally, that news freaks the freak out of us. We go back the next week to confirm the diagnosis (Naomi had been squirmy during the echo), and get a second opinion, all confirming the same thing. She needs surgery, preferably before her first birthday.

Time to talk to the surgeon. Dr. Brian Reemtsen is the man. He seems like a nice guy. He says that if it's up to him, he'd like to just get the surgery over with -- no reason to wait. We kinda see it his way and schedule the surgery.

So it's late July and we wake up verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry early to get to the hospital at 4:45 for her 7:30am surgery. Dr. Reemtsen says it'll be a quick surgery, ninety minutes to two hours. Naomi is up all morning and very cranky. We try to calm her, but we're freaked ourselves. Finally the docs give her a little sedative, which calms her. As they wheel her down the hall, she looks at us, projecting calm. Sure, it was drug-induced, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

And Tiffany and I go get breakfast. Two hours later, Dr. Reemtsen comes down and finds us. Surgery went perfectly, he said.

Wanna know how good Dr. Reemtsen is? Check this out. The surgery involved clamping the two ends of Naomi's aorta around the coarctation, cutting it out, and sewing the two larger halves together. Keeping the clamp on too long can lead to bad things -- I'll spare you the scary word this time. Dr. Reemtsen said that the Society of Big Wigs That Recommend Things recommend keeping the clamps on for 40 minutes or less (and obviously the less the better)... and Dr. Reemtsen told us in the pre-op meeting that he shoots for 20 minutes or less. So cut to after the surgery. How long were the clamps on, I asked? 7 minutes. That means, if I understand things correctly, that he clamped her aorta, cut out the coarctation (which is just a millimeter or two!), sewed the two ends together, and unclamped, in less time than it took me to decide what I would eat for breakfast.

We went up to the cardiothoracic ICU to see Naomi, and I won't lie, she didn't look so good. Had a bunch of IVs in her, a chest tube draining fluid, and a breathing tube down her throat. But slowly, over the next 24 hours, these would be removed one by one. (She would also be moved to the much less friendly pediatric ICU. BIG PROPS to the cardiothoracic nurses at UCLA, who were awesome, and a big urging to the peds nurses to get it together.)

Wanna know when we knew everything would be OK? 36 hours after the surgery. All of Naomi's IVs were out at this point except for the central line in her neck. Naomi wanted to crawl around -- she was still learning to crawl at that point -- and was trying to get around her hospital bed, but was restricted by the IV. Finally she gave up. She sat up in the bed and looked at me with a look that said for all the world, "Daddy, can you do something about this thing in my neck? It's cramping my style." Our daughter, the friendly kid with the sunny attitude and the huge grin, was back. She was released to go home the next morning.

We kept her on Tylenol for the next few days, but after that, she didn't really seem to be in pain. The doctors did keep her on some blood pressure medication for about a month -- the kidneys had to get used to the new pressure they were getting -- and that was a pain in the butt because she had to have it three times daily, which meant before daycare, after daycare, and (ugh) 1 am. But that was only a month.

Meanwhile, Naomi learned to crawl, cruise, and sleep through the night, which has been amazing. And now she's even learning to walk -- she can walk behind a push toy or holding onto the stroller.

The doctors say there's nothing that Naomi can't do. She's just like any other kid now, only with a sexy two-inch scar on her back. One doc even said, "She's not a heart patient anymore," which was music to my ears.

My hero -- part one

Post is below, but first -- the latest photos of Naomi can be found here...

http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/August2008?authkey=xdcrPa1X9BY




and the videos... we have more but are having trouble getting them uploaded...

* * *

And now, the story.

This story begins about six months ago. At Naomi's two-month well baby checkup, our fantastic pediatrician Dr. Sergis hears a heart murmur. We are concerned, of course, but not worried. Baby books say that lots of babies can have murmurs for a lot of different reasons. We gotta check it, but it's not worth freaking out.

So we make the appointment with the cardiologist... for six weeks later. When we finally see Dr. W -- and let's just call him that -- his tech performs an echo and we get the story. She has a PDA and an ASD. Both are relatively common problems and are likely to go away on their own, he says. We'll keep an eye on them and if they don't close in the next several years -- years! -- we'll repair them surgically then.

Fair enough. So each month, Naomi goes back to Dr. W, and we get the same answer. Keep an eye, likely take care of themselves, maybe surgery in a few years.

In the meantime, Dr. W's office becomes increasingly difficult to deal with. The office isn't computerized in any way -- even appointments are kept with pen and paper. This meant that because we were seeing him in his satellite office in Torrance rather than his main office in Long Beach, we could not schedule the next appointment at the front desk. We had to go home and call the office. Which is difficult to remember when you have baby brain. Annoying.

Then, say you actually remember to make an appointment but need to change it. Well, they don't always remember to delete the old appointment. And then they charge you $50 because you missed the appointment. THAT YOU HAD ALREADY CALLED TO CANCEL.

Also, check out this story... they don't accept checks for the co-pay, only cash. And they don't have $5 bills. So I give the receptionist a $20 and she writes me a receipt saying they owe me $5 next time. Fair enough. Cut to a month later. A few days before the appointment, I get a bill from the office for $2.07 -- the remainder that wasn't covered by the insurance. OK, put it aside to pay when I pay the bills in a few days. Two days later I go to the appointment. I take out my $5 credit. Receptionist #1 -- THE ONE WHO WROTE THE RECEIPT IN THE FIRST PLACE -- looks at me like I'm speaking Aramaic: "What do you mean we owe you $5?" Meanwhile, receptionist #2 is looking at me and the books skeptically and says, "It says here he has an outstanding bill. Better make sure he doesn't have a hold on his account." I say, "A hold -- outstanding -- wait, you mean that bill for $2.07 I got two days ago?" She says, "That's right. You owe us money. We have to check to see if you have a hold on your account." "But I got that two days ago." Long pause. "Right -- no hold. Yet." I say, "Would you like me to pay you the $2.07 right now so there's no confusion?" She says, "I can't take it here -- it has to go to the office in Long Beach." I walk out angry and even more frustrated.

So enough of these things happen and Tiffany and I decide that regardless of Dr. W's talent as a cardiologist -- and I hear he's good -- we simply can't deal with his office anymore and we need another doctor. We get the name but there's one delay and another -- remember, this is just something we have to keep an eye on for years, according to Dr. W -- and it's a couple of months before we take Naomi to see Dr. Atkinson.

Who sees something else. And three weeks later, Naomi has heart surgery.

To be continued...

Videos Galore

Naomi is actually doing stuff now --first solid food, sitting up, finding her feet-- so we went kind of crazy with the videos. Hope you enjoy. Still photos also available at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/May2008?authkey=OTXW6wi1SN8

Tiffany

Actually, I Do Care if I Ever Get Back

Hi Everybody! These pics and more available at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/April2008?authkey=BEdGf-YcCno

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And now the story of Naomi's first baseball game!

Naomi's favorite song, as you may know, is "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." Maybe she just has a hankerin' for peanuts and Cracker Jack, but every single time she hears it, she loves it. So on Jackie Robinson Night, we headed to Dodger Stadium for some ballgame action.

Even though the game started at 7:10, which is past her usual bedtime. And even though Naomi is not the greatest sleeper in the world. We were a little apprehensive about this.

So when we arrived (some time into the first inning -- a crash had caused terrible traffic on the Arroyo Seco) and Naomi was asleep (thus missing a highly shaky Hong-Chih Kuo), that was good.

She soon woke up, though, which was fine for a while. But then, Naomi got a little hungry and a little sleepy just as the Dodgers were putting together a big rally. Have you ever tried to shush 50,000 cheering people? Believe me, it doesn't go well.

Our goal was to stay through the seventh-inning stretch. We made that goal -- but Naomi seemed unimpressed by so many people singing her favorite song. We stayed another half-inning, but then Cranky Baby -- and our own sleeplessness -- forced our hands and we left for home (just missing a home run by Russell Martin). The Dodgers won the game and fun was had by all Kaplans and Glassmen.

my favorite vowels

Naomi tries to talk.

New photos for March

No clever sayings this time since Todd hasn't come up with any. But new photos of Naomi are at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/March08?authkey=ZMPOr-Psgf4

Tiffany

Roll Over, Roll Over, Red Rover, Red Rover

One of the cool things about parenting is watching your kids figure things out. Like rolling over.

This video might be a little boring if Naomi isn't related to you, but watch it anyway. It's thirty seconds.




See that? She knows what she wants to do -- roll over. She figures out where she needs to go, what she needs to do with her arms, how to shift her weight, and then bam -- she's over.

Watching stuff like this almost makes it worth it when she stays up all night crying. Like last night.

Birthday pic:

Video Killed the Blogging Star

Let's see if I can figure out how to post a video.

If this works, I'll be somewhat amazed.

All Your Baby Are Belong to Us

When playing a video game, you often have to do things just so -- push buttons just in the right sequence, or steer your character through a maze perfectly. Do it incorrectly and your progress is halted and you start over from square one.

This is one of the many reasons why Tiffany doesn't play video games. She'll get frustrated quickly with the down-up-up-down-left-left-right repetition, doing things over an over again, only to fail and have to try again and again. This is what people do for fun?

Putting a baby to sleep is a little like that. You have to swaddle. You have to turn the baby on her side. You have to rock her gently. You have to shush. You have to give her the pacifier. You have to bounce. You have to sit in the chair and rock. And you have to do it all in the correct order, for the correct amount of time. If your legs are tired and you sit in the rocking chair too early, fuhgedaboudit -- the pacifier is out, the legs are kicking, the arms are out of the swaddle, the baby is awake, you're starting over, and if it's after one a.m. and you've been at this for an hour already, you are one step closer to madness.

However, a video game you can shut off, unplug, put on ebay, and denounce to your friends. Just try doing that with a baby, just once, and child protective services gets very, very upset. Sheeesh.

Babies -- world's worst video game? Discuss.

P.S. Somebody had a birthday, sort of.

Hi Everybody!

Pics now....

http://picasaweb.google.com/tiff.glassman/At7Weeks?authkey=Yl9baeL1Dw0

...more stories later.