Recovery Time

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I'm also putting out the request for any knitters or crocheters that might be looking for a project.  Mr.B is a blankie baby (as were my other two boys) and he requires two knit/crocheted blankets for comfort to go to sleep. We do have six different blankets that we shift through but they are all very important to us (gifts from Ronald McDonald House, ACH and such) and they are getting a little threadbare. If anyone knits and/or crochets (and has time in their busy lives) we would love to add to our collection for him so that I can 'retire' some of the first ones we received. Please let me know if you are interested, message me and we can discuss the cost! :)

Surgery day was more than a little anxiety ridden but it was all mine (and a few of yours) not B's.  We arrived at the Day Surgery Clinic and Mr.B was instantly unimpressed!  He was even more upset with me when I changed him into his little pink stripy jammies and hospital gown.

We had an hour or so to wait and B just pretty much clung to me that whole time while I ran through my repertoire of songs for him.



We were then walked down to the 'holding' area where you wait (again).  We did get to see all three of B's Doctors and that helped to drop my anxiety level (Dr.Brindle could put anyone at ease) and meet with his Anesthetist.  The Anesthetist was new to us so he was reviewing B's files for his last surgeries to see what his 'rating' was for intubation.  Needless to say, B's 'file' is over three feet high so it was a bit of a shuffle.  The Anesthetist also noted that B was down for Day Surgery and he looked at me and said, "Day Surgery?" and I responded with, "Yeah, I'm a bit concerned about that" to which he responded with, "Yeah, me too!".  The decision was instantly made to hold B overnight for observation, which made my anxiety much happier!

The Anesthetist was also happy to learn that Mr.B was a 'grade 2' intubation last surgery so that helped as well.

 

I had been thinking of his surgery for days (weeks) before and I was bound and determined that I would be the one to walk my child into surgery.  I was fully ready to put up a fight if needed!  His Nurse came and was chatting with us and she reached out to B and he WENT to her (he's not let me go for weeks without major incidence!).  She said, "Say bye-bye Mom" and I said that I wanted to walk him in and she reassured me that he was okay (which he actually was) and I realized that I had anticipated a huge wailing/screaming baby going in, not a happy calm B.  I watched her walk away with B down the hall and he just watched me as they went, with no tears.  Now I'm sure he totally freaked out when they got him into the room but I'm going to let that just go with the imagination that they got the gas mask on him immediately and he was out.

 

There are no words to describe or feelings to put down as you watch your child being walked into surgery, Day Surgery or Major or somewhere in between.  I actually felt somewhat at ease, which I also was not expecting, when I walked back to the waiting room to meet Michael.

 

Thankfully I was distracted by Kathy one of the g-tube Nurses who went through the new g-tube protocol with me (not that much has changed) and in all reality it was only an hour long surgery so it was a doable wait.

 

Dr.B was out first and she was so excited!  She had taken a good look in his tummy and said that she was confident that the new tube would be the ONE!  His stomach size is still very small and the balloon part of the Mic-Key (holds it inside the stomach) was taking up a good deal of room and was certainly right beside his pylorus (valve at the bottom of the stomach that it would get jammed in).  The new PEG only has an upside-down cup, no balloon and Dr.B is thinking that this will certainly be part of our never-ending g-tube battles. You just have to smile at Dr.B, she is contagious in her enthusiasm and she would never say something was great unless it really was (we love her!!).



MicKey (old style, balloon goes in tummy)

 


New PEG (mushroom cap goes inside)



 

I was then called into recovery (which is an immediate indication that he wasn't doing so well coming out of his 'sleep' as they don't generally want parents there).  Michael headed back to work (only one parent allowed) and I went in to find a very blue Mr.B.  He was extremely unimpressed to say the least and when he's unimpressed he holds his breath.  Now it's not like he was untended to, he had a great Nurse but he needed his Momma without a doubt.  I was able to hold him, get the oxygen mask on his face and get his SAT's up to a decent level.  The Nurse asked about his history and I explained to her it really hadn't been that long since he'd come off his O2.  She seemed surprised and immediately ordered nasal prongs for him and called the Respiratory Resident to put him on constant O2 flow.

 

Mr.B was feeling more than a little rough and having him

mad and holding his breath was certainly not helping anything or anyone!  He was not impressed at the addition of the nasal prongs but he kept them on which is a good indication that he needed them.  He was actually able to settle on 1 litre of O2 and slept in my arms for a bit.

We got assigned a bed up on Unit 4 and got moved upstairs (I honestly had no concept of time at this point).  Braeden was again suitably unimpressed to be wheeled into a room.  We met our Nurse Tim (who was great) but I was feeling more than a little anxious at being on Unit 4.  It is silly really but I know so many faces on Unit 2, it is our home away from home, so it was hard having to 'adjust' to the Unit 4 living. 

The rest of the afternoon/evening is just a blur of B being very upset for the most part and needing to be held non-stop.  I tried to dash to the bathroom and Mr.B's SAT's hit a lovely 53 (that'd be blue baby).  One of B's (original) Nurses, Sarah, from Unit 2 was on shift below us and she came up on her dinner break so that I could have a 5 min reprieve.  She was more than willing to take a screaming B from me and tell me to 'go'!

Nurse Sarah and her Mr.B

I guiltily ran down to grab a salad and a coffee and all but wolfed them down when I got back so I could take him again.

Sarah then, bless her HUGE heart came back after her shift was over at 11pm to sit with him so that I could run home for a toothbrush, shower and such.  He was asleep at this point but was waking every 10 mins or so and needed to be constantly reassured.  I crept out and (again) dashed home feeling horribly guilty but also knowing that he was with a familiar face and would be well tended to.  When I got back he was actually blissfully settled in her lap in the dark watching "Dr.Seuss".  It was a funny/great sight to see!  Of course he immediately started crying when he saw me but it was good to know that he had a very good snuggle with Sarah while I was gone.

It was a long night (I don't know what a short night is anymore) but we got through it (mostly) unscathed.  I was woken up by the Surgery Resident at 6:30am (uh, thanks) who asked me how the night had gone etc. and if I was comfortable taking him home (YES).  He was happy to release him later that morning which was great news.  B had been off his O2 all night and had been doing just fine without it (my superstar kid!) so I was more then happy to take him home.

Of course when they tell you that you're released it is still

another few hours (or 6 in our case) before you actually get to leave.  We headed home in the pouring rain and I came home and put B immediate to bed in his own crib so he (and I) could relax.

As expected, B has bounced back with vigour aside from a really sore left ear (that bleed out quite a bit initially).  He's back to his happy/silly self today (three days later) and back to fully enjoying life (as long as I'm not putting in his ear drops). 

Thank you everyone for your kind words and positive thoughts!

From Our Home (hopefully for a long while now) To Yours...