I was an emotional wreck before his surgery. I don't know if it was pregnancy hormones, or nerves. Both probably, but I was just so scared that something was going to go wrong. I smothered my little guy the night before. Good thing he's so lovey and always is up for mommy hugs and kisses, cause I needed them. This pictures above was taken as he was going to bed the night before we headed in the hospital. Grandma and Grandpa R. took Maddie for the night so that we didn't have to wake her up and drop her off at 6am the next morning. Max was being all sorts of silly making faces and having a great time with me. It just made it harder for me knowing that he had no clue what he was in for the next morning.
We got up in the AM and headed up to the hospital. Got all checked in and sat in for the wait. His Surgery was scheduled for 9:30 AM. We were finally called back to the exam room where he was checked out to make sure that he was healthy enough to proceed with the surgery. This is where we have been sent home on previous attempts.
He passed through everything though and we dressed him in his surgical jammies. He was NOT happy about that. He hates to change his clothes in other places and was not fine with the weird jammies. He kept ripping the top off of himself since it's only held on with buttons.
We were then sent in to the pre-op room to wait until his Dr and Anesthesiologist came out to talk to us about the procedure. This is where I lost it. Jeff must of thought I'd lost my mind, because I just sat in a chair and bawled the whole time while Max was just having a blast playing with all the cool toys.
After talking to the Dr's, the nurse came out to give him a sedative to make the separation from us easier for him. I wish they could have given me one too ;)
It took about 15 minutes to take effect. It was like the kid was drunk. He's playing one second and the next he kinda just slumps against Jeff and starts laughing. It was hilarious!
They brought out a wagon to wheel him back to surgery so we loaded him up and walked with him to the OR doors where we had to say our goodbyes for now.
Jeff and I were then sent to the OR waiting room for the surgeon to come and let us know how everything went.
After only about 20 minutes he came out and told us that everything had gone great. He said that he had taken some pretty large tonsils out and medium sized adenoids. Max was not quite awake yet and they told us that they would call us as soon as he started waking up.
Only one parent could go back to the first recovery room since the area was so small, so Jeff let me go, since I'd been sitting there bawling my eyes out the whole time.
It felt like an eternity until they called me to come to him. When I walked in he was laying in his crib sleeping and snoring really loud. I again lost it looking at my baby laying there all helpless. It didn't help when they told me that he had been crying and scared. It's hard for these little ones to come out of being under anesthesia. I sat there just holding his little hand for a minute and he started to stir and then cry. I talked to him and told him I was there and he just lost it and started screaming and trying to climb out of the crib in to my arms. The nurses and staff were wonderful and quickly pulled up a chair and moved all of his chords and wires that he was hooked up to so that he could be in my arms asap. It was a hard thing to experience him being like that. He just was crying and crying and didn't know why he was hurting and in this strange place with all the stuff hooked up to him and all the weird people around trying to touch him.
After about 30 minutes they moved us to the second recovery room where we got to meet daddy. He was coming out of the anesthesia enough now and was crying a little less. He wanted daddy to hold him for a while. The nurses were trying to get him to drink some slushy and juices. After a little while he asked me if he could have a bottle, which shocked us all. I was so grateful that I had packed one of his bottles. He down almost 8 ounces of apple juice in about an hour. The nurses were ecstatic! He was talking to us and being a real trooper. He did so well that they released us around noon to take him home. I was so happy we didn't end up having to stay the night there!
He did so well when we got home. He kept up the drinking and even ate a tiny bit of dinner that night.
The next day he continued to do awesome and even played outside a little bit.
On Thursday I could tell that he was slowing down and starting to not feel too well, and then Friday came and it all seemed to be falling apart. He wouldn't let me put him down at all that day. He just wanted to be held and he would cry and cry saying that his mouth hurt. He also was in a lot of pain, because he had been on Lortab nonstop since Tuesday he was also really constipated and uncomfortable. I called his ENT and he told us to start to taper down the lortab and try getting him on Tylonal. Saturday we had him on both and he was completely miserable while he was on the tylonal. Luckily Jeff was around that day and we were able to switch holding him. Poor Maddie was bored out of her mind.
On Sunday he was feeling a little better and we took him to Uncle Bretts and Aunt Jen's house for Easter dinner and the egg hunt. By Monday he was fighting with Maddie and asking for toys and food again, so I knew my little guy was returning. By day 7 he seemed pretty much back to normal.
On Wednesday he got hit with a severe case of the stomach flu so it was back to bed for him. The poor kid. I was so grateful though that it hit when it did and not when he was still in pain.
So that's the story. He is a new man now. I wish I could say that he's sleeping through the night, but I'd be lying. He still wakes up during the night and makes his way in to our room.
I have also noticed that he drinks about 1/3 of the amount of milk that we used to. We used to go though 3 gallons of milk a week with him, now I'm lucky if we can get though 1! He also all of the sudden likes asparagus. Hated the stuff before, but it's great now for some reason.
And like I said before, his snoring is gone. It makes it much more enjoyable to be sleeping next to him and not have that going on in my ear.
So, there is the tonsillectomy novel for ya. Soooooo glad it's all over with :)
Next I'll post about all of the fun problems I'm having with this pregnancy. That will be a whole other novel. Stay tuned ... ;)
1 comment:
So glad to hear everything came out alright! I'm sure it was super stressful and a real drag! Hope he continues to get better!
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