Chain Reaction

During these past few months, I’ve had my fill of (quoting Mulligan here) “three one four! Turn the channel to three one four!”  That would be the Game Show Network.  I’ve seen more Family Feud in 2 months than I’ve seen my entire life up to this point.  I’ve been taken back to my younger days as I've watched Pyramid and  Press Your Luck—”No whammies, no whammies, big bucks big bucks…..annnnnnd STOP!” 

One of my favorite shows however, has been Chain Reaction.  In this game  team complete chains of words after the first and last words of the chain are revealed. Each word in the chain relates in some way to the word directly above and/or below it. 



When I watch the game, I find it impossible to connect some of the words…like the puzzle above, who knew lightning could be connected to rink?

Well, this past Friday, I had a little game of Chain Reaction going on while we were here at the hospital with Bogey.  As it turns out, linking lightning to rink isn’t that absurd after all.  I was creating my own puzzles and I went from SEDATION to TRACHEOTOMY in a matter of seconds.  Here’s how my puzzle came together in my mind:

*Sedation to put in IV for Profusion Scan
*Airway Problems
*Breathing Tube
*Collapsed Lung
*Stay on Ventilator
*Weeks to months in the hospital
*Tracheotomy

Needless to say, my emotions took over and I didn’t want to start bawling right then, so instead I just got frustrated.  Why could we not skip that first step?  Then for sure my puzzle would be obsolete…we could just stick to the original plan, and be done for the day.  Before I said too much, and made everyone there think I was a complete loon, and call for the social worker,  I stepped out of the room, so that I could go and fester in my scenario and get myself geared up for what I suspected was coming.

(p.s.  In my own psychoanalysis this is completely normal ;)

As I sat in the waiting room, on a thin line between a complete meltdown, and punching a hole in the wall, I was reminded of the many blessings that Bogey and our family have received, and I knew that Heavenly Father wasn’t going to desert us now.  I knew that no matter what happened, we’d get through—I knew we were in the right place, getting the best care for the little guy.  We were surrounded by the best doctors and nurses etc.

So, after I finished my Diet Coke (courtesy of Dr. Axelrod—not kidding when I say the BEST doctors here—), I calmly walked back into the room and we moved on.  Boge-ster had his scan, woke up just fine, and we were able to make it to our other appointments.

I don’t know why my brain functions the way it does. Maybe it’s because when things don’t go the way I think, when we actually get good news and we walk out of the hospital doors with our baby (instead of having him admitted and we walk out empty handed…like our last go round here), I feel more humbled, and much more grateful. 

As it turns out, Bogey’s heart and lungs haven’t changed as significantly as suspected.  For now, he won’t need anything done.  We are proceeding with cleft lip repair.  We could be home sooner than expected—(of course, that is, if none of these new scenarios I’ve got floating around don’t come into play…I could right a book on what I think could possibly go wrong…but I won’t.)

(This is post profusion scan…Bogey loves that giraffe almost as much as he loves pulling the nasal cannula into his mouth!)