The Date Has Been Set!

I received a call from Sick Kids Hospital today. It was Alan George, the coordinator for the Cranio Facial Clinic. He called to tell us that we can have June 21^st as a surgery day if it works for us. He also went on to say that Dr. Dirks, the neurosurgeon we saw was not available and therefore we would need to go ahead with another surgeon. At first I was concerned about this. I was comfortable with Dr. Dirks doing the surgery so I was nervous about what he was going to say next.  But then he told me that the new neurosurgeon taking over Spencer’s case would be Dr. James Drake the Chief of Neurosurgery. I was quite pleased.  Alan asked me if we wanted to meet with him first before setting the date so I then asked, “Do we have to? If he is the chief, I am more than thrilled that he will be performing the surgery and really do not feel the need to meet with him.” I’m very reassured that Spencer will be in good hands with the Chief of Neurosurgery.

When I looked up Dr. James Drake this is what I found. Dr. Drake was born in London, Ontario, and educated at Princeton University (1969-1974), Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (1974), University of Toronto (1986-1987), and Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (1987). Training included a research fellowship funded by the Medical Research Council of Canada (1986-1987) in Hydrocephalus. Assumed his appointment in the Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery in 1988, and has been on the surgical staff at The Hospital for Sick Children in the Division of Paediatric Neurosurgery since then.

I think these credentials speak for themselves. So now we know, Dr. Philips will be doing the Plastics part of the surgery and Dr. Drake will be doing the Neurosurgery part of the surgery. Knowing that these doctors are both very capable, educated and skilled doctors eases the mind a little about what our baby is going to be going through.

After this part of the conversation ended Alan George (the coordinator) went on to tell me that he had some other bad news. Spencer’s blood is B +. I am A+ and Steve (my husband) is AB+ which means neither of us is a match for Spencer and he will have to receive blood from the Canadian Blood Service. This upset me a great deal. I know that everyone says that the blood service is safe and reliable however I do have my doubts. Unfortunately now we won’t be able to control what he gets, we won’t be able to build up our iron to help him. We have to put our faith in the “system” and pray that every drop he gets is safe and untainted. Alan explained that if he gets either of our blood the “antibodies we have will cause clumping and will do more harm than good” so Canadian Blood Service it is.

We have two more appointments coming now. One is a CT scan which will be some time in May and an Anesthesiology appointment also to happen in May.

Other than all this Spencer is progressing amazingly well. He is such a happy, outgoing, energetic little boy who is going to be crawling any second! Can’t wait for the fun to begin when he doesn’t sit still for a second! 


Spencer at 8 months