Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Tonsils, Adenoids and Tubes

Again, it's been a month since I last caught up here. For the most part, not much happened in late May. We had a nice Memorial Day weekend with my husband's sister and family as well as my BFF and her family. And the first weekend in June we went back to the Bronx Zoo with friends.

Then came Monday, June 10th. Surgery day. I mentioned that he was having a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and myringotomy last month. Well it happened and it was ROUGH!

The OR was booked for 7 AM sharp, so we had to arrive by 5:30 AM.  We were 20 minutes late, but I figured they couldn't start without him. We did OK for the most part during check in. Little Man spelled his name for a nurse and let them weigh and measure him (38 lb and 41 inches). I think until the anesthesologist prescribed Versed (similar to Xanax) for his anxiety, we were OK. But once the nurse made him drink it, it was downhilll. Managed to get him into the hospital gown and he wanted me to go into the OR with him. The medication hit while we were in the staging area so he wasn't quite as belligerent as expected, but it still took me and his ENT and a nurse to hold him down while the anesthesologist administered the gas. He was out, finally, and I was ushered out of the OR at 6:55 AM.

The procedures were quick. The doctor came out at 7:40 to let us know it was all done. Apparently Little Man's tonsils were "really big." And we waited another 20 minutes (give or take) until we were taken to recovery to be with him. Upon arrival, we found out he'd ripped the IV right out of his hand upon rousing. He was HYSTERICAL.  Nothing and I mean NOTHING would calm him. My holding him helped for a minute. Then my husband tried. But he really didn't rouse well.  They moved us out of the PACU to the short stay recovery area (loud and not really conducive to recovery).

Little Man was crying and screaming the entire time. "I want to go home!" Over and over. He fell asleep on me for about 45 minutes. When he woke, we coaxed him to drink some more water and he peed. We had been telling him he could go home if he drank and peed. So he tells the nurses "I did what you said. I drank and peed. I'm a good boy. I want to go home."  I was nearly in tears and I think one of the nurses was too. But, thankfully, they sent us home a little before noon.

I'm not entirely sure that was the best thing. Since being home he has refused ALL medication. No pain meds. No antibiotics. I only managed to get the Rx ear drops in. But thankfully he's remained hydrated and I presume he's healing. Today is actually worse than yesterday (48 hours post op). Day 1, when his throat was still numb, he ate chocolate pudding and ate ice pops and ice cream. Yesterday he ate oatmeal. Today he's refusing foods (though, oddly, he had some mushy mac-n-cheese for lunch) but IS drinking. It's been so rough. And I can't even get a Feverall suppositiory in him.  At least he doesn't have a fever, though he's been at 99.5 a bit.

I think we must be the worst patients his ENT has seen. I called a few times and got mixed messages. I'm not 100% thrilled with the communication but I do realize that Little Man is NOT the ideal patient.

I knew going in this would be rough. But I guess I thought he'd at least have ice pops.