Dallas...

Fearing that flying could place unnecessary pressure on Nathan’s already fragile brain, we decided to make the trek across country by vehicle to the big state of Texas. We left Wednesday, ( February 29 ),  made awesome time and stopped in Shreveport, Louisiana. For whatever reason, Nathan did not sleep well Wednesday night and was awake every hour, on the hour. Then he slept solidly from 3 to 6 am. It was definitely odd behavior for our little guy.

Thursday, ( March 1 ), we awoke and made the short drive into Texas. We were able to check into our hotel early and found a Souper Salad for lunch. ( Souper Salad is an awesome soup/salad restaurant that used to be in Jacksonville, but unfortunately shut down in the late 90’s. ) We took Nathan back to the hotel and everyone, except me, got a nap. ( Sleep and I haven’t had the best relationship ever since Nathan was given the original diagnosis of craniosynostosis. Add pregnancy, to that mixture and it’s just good to say that sleep and I have had a ‘falling out.’ ) Brian had his promotional exam Thursday morning and skipping that, isn’t exactly an option in the Navy. He took his exam Thursday morning and literally boarded a plane that afternoon for Texas. We rediscovered traffic while in Texas and Nathan learned the true meaning of stop and go. We cheered when we hit 20 mph at one point. Finally making it to the airport, we grabbed Brian and headed for dinner. After dinner, it was back to the hotel and by the grace of God I slept wonderfully that night. Go figure.

Friday, ( March 2 ), Nathan was awake at 6 am. Normally Nathan will toss and turn in bed, until about 7:30 am. I’m not sure what changed his internal clock, but while we were traveling it was Nathan’s job to be sure we were up promptly at 6. Brian and I managed to keep him somewhat entertained and dozed until 7:30ish. Nathan made it perfectly clear he was ready to ‘eat’ and we reluctantly gave in and got ready for our day. Since Dr. Fearon was literally meeting with us between two surgeries, I was to call his office around 10:30 am and see what time we were to come in. Checking my phone every 3 minutes to see how much closer we were to 10:30, became tiring at 9:27 am and I went ahead and called Dr. Fearon’s office. We were told we would meet with Dr. Fearon at noon. Wanting to be sure we had all the paperwork that was needed and filled out, I told Michelle, ( Dr. Fearon’s receptionist ), we would see her at 11 am.

Dr. Fearon doesn’t need wallpaper or some type of generic medical office artwork; his waiting room is literally covered in degrees, certifications, letters of fellowship an article from the Wall Street Journal and accolades. Dr. Fearon himself came and got us at 12:20 pm and walked us back to his office. Dr. Sacco, ( pediatric neurosurgeon ), was also with him. They both watched Nathan as he played with a ‘hair pain’ and other various toys that Dr. Fearon had in his office. Dr. Fearon took tons of pictures of Nathan as he played and both of them felt Nathan’s head. If they rubbed the top of Nathan’s head once, they rubbed it twenty times. Something Dr. Blount or Grant never did. 

Finally Dr. Fearon sat behind his desk, looked at me and said, ‘Start from the beginning. Tell me everything.’ I was somewhat taken aback by his questioning. I had been conversing with him in email. He and his colleague were literally on their lunch break between surgeries. What I expected to be a twenty minute rush through ‘consult’ was actually an hour long, let-me-answer-every-possible-question-you-can-possibly-think-of session. And not just every question I had, but every single question Brian, my Momma and Daddy had. I was stunned.

Nathan, once again, was diagnosed with craniosynostosis. At least three of his sutures are fused, ( coronal, metopic and sagittal ). Currently Dr. Fearon doesn’t believe the last suture, ( lamboid ), is fused. Surgery is definitely necessary and will hopefully be performed in the next coming weeks. We sincerely asked if this was something that could possibly wait until after Littlest One’s arrival and their very quick response to that was, ‘The sooner the better.’ In other words, no. We all took a deep breath and the realization that we would be back in Dallas, in the coming weeks hit us all.

We left Dr. Fearon’s office and grabbed some lunch. I had more emotions rushing through me at the lunch, than food options at the Golden Corral. I was elated that we had a plan of action and still furious that Dr. Grant and Dr. Blount didn’t see what Dr. Fearon did. Jubilation that what my gut had been telling me was correct, yet I had never wanted to be more wrong in my life. In a bathroom restaurant that was very fitting for a dive bar b que place, I cried on my Momma’s shoulder, ‘I didn’t want to be right.’

My sweet Momma found a mall that had a little aquarium and mini Legoland. We as a family desperately needed the distraction from all of the chaos of the day. Nathan was in heaven looking at all the water and fish. He ran from exhibit to exhibit looking at ‘Nemo’s!’ Legoland was just as awesome. Nathan had tons of fun building things with his Daddy and riding rides. I truly believe, Brian might have had just as much fun, if not more, at Legoland than Nathan did.

Saturday, ( March 3 ), we decided to see one more attraction of Dallas and went to the Dallas Zoo. The day could not have been any more beautiful. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the weather hovered around 65. It was so gorgeous! Once we realized how large the zoo itself was, we decided to only do half of the zoo this trip. When we return in a couple of weeks, we’ll visit the other half. It was a massive zoo! And because we had gotten there right when they opened, it wasn’t overly crowded and was impeccably clean! It was definitely a nice end cap to our trip to Dallas. 

Building with Daddy

'Momma! Look! Elephant!'

Nathan, elephant's, giraffe's...oh my!