Surgery Complete!

Poor little Sidekick has been on the slow road to recovery.  Surgery went well, and I held up great until they wheeled him away.  Fortunately, he was given a medicine that made him very loopy, so he couldn't really talk well which was pretty entertaining because he was slurring his words. He was totally fine leaving me, but I'll tell you, that 50 minutes was a long time hoping he'd be okay and there wouldn't be any devastating complications like what happened to my friend's son. 

He was so brave the entire time in the hospital.  I'm amazed at how resilient kids are.  They don't know to be afraid; therefore, they aren't. He brought Taggie, Turtle (the dog), and a lot of Tinys (his imaginary friends) with him.  They all went into surgery with him to protect him. 

 

 

His tonsils and adenoids were very large, and there was a lot of thick fluid in his ears, so the tubes were definitely necessary. I was warned that some kids have a hard time coming out of anesthesia, and that they can be confused and upset.  I'm glad to know that Sidekick was pretty normal when it came to this.  He was a mess, and I couldn't calm him down. The nurse in recovery was yelling at him telling him to stop crying and to use his inside voice. She said when he stopped yelling, she would give him a slushie.  A couple of things:

 

1. My kid just got his tonsils ripped out of his throat.  If I can't help him calm down, then don't F'n yell at him because that's not helping.
2. My kid doesn't know what a slushie is, so guess what?  That's not going to help him calm down.
3. Just shut the F up and let me take care of my kid!

We got to his room quickly, and the goal was to get his pain under control.  I was hoping he would get checked out within a few hours, but when the doctor checked him again three hours later to release him, he looked at him and asked how I thought he was doing.  I told him that I didn't think he looked all that great, but that I would expect that.  He said that he looked too pale, and he didn't want to send us home yet. He told Sidekick "lights out" and time to take a nap (something he wanted him to do right away, but Sidekick was just upset and having the TV on helped him calm down).  I turned the lights off, found a white noise App, laid next to him, and he drifted off to sleep quickly.

 

When he woke up, I begged to new nurse for his pain meds because it was time. She said that he seemed okay and not in a lot of pain.  I explained that the doctor told me to stay on top of giving them to him every four hours for three days to stay on top of the pain.  She seemed resistant to give them to him.  WTF?! I felt like I was fighting with her to give my son what he needed before the meds wore off too much. She finally gave them to him, and his eyes swelled up a little and were red.  I asked her about it, and she noticed it too.  They eventually went back down to normal, and after another slushie, we were released, three hours later than planned. 

 

As soon as we got home, Sidekick was famished!  He immediately wanted pancakes, so I made him two.  He devoured them and wanted another one.  Despite the fact that I thought he would blow up, I conceded.  As soon as that third one was gone, he asked for a banana with peanut butter and a fourth pancake.  I realized that if he was hungry now, I should take advantage of it because he might not be hungry again for a couple of days when his throat starts hurting him again. 

 

When it came time to give him his meds again, his eyes turned red again and swelled up within minutes, only this time it was much worse. It was so strange. I called the doctor on call who said it was most likely not a reaction to his pain meds. This doctor has a different protocol than Sidekick's doctor.  Sidekick's doctor prescribe narcotics and the doctor on call doesn't (poor kids!).  He said that if the swelling doesn't go down by the next time he has to take his pain meds, then to just give him Tylenol the rest of the night until morning when I would call his doctor. 

 

 

 

Not satisfied with his answer, I called Sidekick's pediatrician, and thankfully she was on call that night.  She told me to give him Benadryl, which mine expired almost two years ago, at the same time I give him his pain meds, and to spread the pain meds out to six hours instead of four.  When you are a SMC with a kid sleeping at 9:30 PM, you have to rely on your Village, which I rarely do.   I called a friend who went to the store, picked up some Benadryl, and delivered it to me at 10:00 PM.  I felt so blessed.

 

Within a couple of hours, Sidekick's eyes were back to normal.  What's strange is that no one really knows what exactly happened.  It looks like the surgical tape caused a reaction, but his eyes flared up two times within minutes of getting his pain meds, so something goofy was going on.

 

That was a really long 15 hours, in writing and reality.  More updates to come as I catch up with my blog.