Post surgery update

After 4 days in PICU and 4 more days recuperating at home on pain meds, it was like a switch flipped for DS2 last Wednesday night. Thursday I gave him Motrin just twice, and Friday we went back to daycare and work.

He is sleeping more soundly (without making sounds), when he does wake up, he is more rested and wide awake faster. This is good after naps, but it is not good at 4:30 in the morning. That's what time he woke up today. We are having quite a difficult time adjusting to the sleep changes.

He is also rubbing his ears a lot. Our Dr. said that it is probably from the eardrum healing, and not to worry as long as he doesn't have a fever and there is not drainage. DS2 does have his first post-surgery cold. That's kind of new, too. I'm sure his ears and throat feel different, and I know his cough sounds different. Since his hearing has improved, I think the ear rubbing may partly be due to everything sounding louder than it used to, too.

Home after surgery

We got to come home Saturday afternoon. DS2 was off his IV Friday evening. It got clogged and they decided not to put in a new one, thankfully. His last IV med was also available orally, and since he was drinking and even eating some he didn't need the IV for fluids.

During afternoon nap we watched his O2 sats but did not give oxygen. I learned not to care about the drops from the sensor unless the visual waveform was consistent. Considering that, his O2 level dropped down only to 85. It always recovered on it's own. Overnight Friday DH stayed at the hospital, and I went home with DS1. I didn't sleep much better overall, but at least I was stretched out in my own bed. :-) The same "watch but don't supplement" procedure was don't for DS2's oxygen overnight. He always recovered quickly.

We didn't get out of there until about 1:30pm. We were ready about 9! And we were told that the pulmonologist called and said "ok" but that we had to wait for the hospitalist to come for a final check. She thought we were already gone, so after her rounds she went to lunch. (Since DS2 was the ONLY patient in PICU, she had no other reason to come check.) She apologized when she arrived and realized that we had been waiting on her. That's one of the reasons I don't like the doctors using a "hospitalist" to do their rounds. We were seen by a total of 5 doctors post-op in 5 days. We only saw our surgeon in the in pre-op, in the recovery room (Tuesday) and one other time (Thursday).

Another night in PICU

We will be spending another night in PICU. DS2 is drinking better and is unhooked from the heart and respiratory monitors, but he is still on the O2 monitor. That's our big hold-up now. When he sleeps his oxygen level still drops too much. He also still has some fluid on his lungs. He was given lasix (sp?) to help with the fluid and possibly with the O2 (if the O2 problems are due to the fluid on the lungs). The ENT surgeon actually stopped by this morning. He has requested that the pulmonologist (the sleep study doc) come see DS2 to help determine what to do about the desat's. (That's their term for oxygen saturation in the blood dropping.)

We have decided to switch to regular tylenol if it seems to be enough pain relief, and we are letting DS2 sleep instead of waking him for the pain med. He's asleep now and has been for over 3 hours. They say that is the best for him (plus drinking lots when he's awake.)

Adenoid & Tonsil Surgery

The surgery went well. His tonsils were "the size of ping pong balls" and his adenoids were huge too. He is not being allowed to nurse because the sucking might cause bleeding. (They don't let kids have straws until dismissal, either.)

He is still snoring, but now the cause is swelling from the surgery instead of a small airway with lots of tissue. He is snoring less now than Tuesday afternoon, which I take to be a good sign. During sleep his oxygen level still drops more than it should, so we have the O2 mask nearby. I move it to within a couple of inches of his face and the O2 level goes back up above 90% quickly (usually). He has a little fluid on his lungs, which is apparently common for someone whose obstruction was so large. The pressure in the lungs is much different now that the anatomy has changed so much.

Yesterday shortly after surgery he drank some water, so we thought he would be drinking & eating well quickly. After a dose of liquid tylenol with codine (which tastes awful) he refused to drink for most of the rest of the day and stayed on IV fluids. Today he drank some juice and some milk I pumped this morning, so the IV was unhooked. He napped very well this afternoon and drank 60 more cc of milk and 120 of juice (4 oz) and asked for more. This evening he drank about another 2 oz of juice before not wanting anymore. Tomorrow he gets to have ice cream and applesauce and similar soft foods.

I hadn't expected to need to pump, because I wasn't told that he would not be allowed to nurse. That was annoying because I told the doctor that we still nurse and specifically asked his nurse last week if I would be able to nurse DS2 in the recovery room. She said she would ask and let me know. I guess I should have called back the next day to get the answer. DH brought me my pump this morning (the PICU nurse did offer to get me a hospital one yesterday, which was nice). It had been 32 hours since DS2 had his "last meal" before going NPO before surgery. I was ready to pump! It had been about 6 months since the last time I pumped, I'm guessing. I bet I could go back in this blog and find out. :-)

I should have gone to sleep 2 hours ago, when DS2 finally went to sleep, but I wanted to check email. Now I might as well stay up a bit more because he is due for more pain medicine in about 15 minutes.

Surgery Prep

Mom is prepping for DS2's surgery... I got a tour of the pediatric unit at the hospital last Thursday, and I asked the surgeon's nurse a lot of questions, so I feel a little more at ease now.

Two things that would postpone surgery are DS's lungs not being clear, or him coughing. He started coughing (from his cold, presumably) on Friday, so we went to visit my doctor-brother Saturday to a little reassurance. His lungs were clear, and his ears didn't look infected either. We are hoping that the cough from the cold/drainage will go away in the next two days. It has been a less frequent today than yesterday, pretty much only right after DS2 wakes up.

We will have several visitors the first day or two. Our pastor is going to come see us before surgery. I didn't expect that, since it is so early in the morning, but today before church she said that she'd see us around 6:00 am Tuesday. My oldest brother works at the hospital and said he would come in to work early (he works 2nd shift) to see us before he goes in Tuesday. My other brother (the doc) said he would stop by on Wednesday. And my friend who works at the hospital said to call if I needed a break for a snack or something. My sister also mentioned coming to see us. I suspect that if we're in more than just one night that my dad will come visit, too. It's so great to have a supportive family (who live close) and friends!