Surgery Day

I have a had a ton of posts sitting in my queue for awhile and for some reason they never got published so here I go blitzing again!

Today Xander had his PE tubes replaced and his adenoids taken out. We had to be at the hospital at 6:40 so today I guess it is a good thing that Xander is an early bird but then again trying to explain to and 2.5 year old that he can't have anything to eat or drink isn't exactly so much fun either. Luckily we were able to distract him until it was time to go. Nan came over to watch James while I took Xander to the hospital so Frank could go to work. She just got back from Italy yesterday afternoon from a skiing trip so we got to hear lots of fun stories about that and she brought the boys carnival hats- basically they look like jester hat with bells- but Xander insisted on wearing his Carnival hat to the hospital- what a cutie!

Anyway we got there, got checked in and headed off to the short stay unit to get ready. Everything went smoothly- all of the nurses loved Xander's jingling hat! I had a long talk with the anesthesiologists about Versed vs. no Versed. Xander had such a hard time coming out of the anesthesia the last time that I was really nervous about doing the versed again b/c I was concerned that would compound the effect of the anesthesia but after some much needed reassurance from the Dr (whom I work with and know from there) we decided we would use the versed but would go with a lighter dose than he received last time. Versed is dosed in a range and last time he got the upper edge of the range so this time we used the lightest dose- which actually ended up being 1/2 the dose he was given before. I signed all those consent form- yuck! We gave him the versed and waited about 10 minutes until that took effect and then they wheeled him away in their little plastic wagon. I think that is the one of the hardest parts of the process b/c at that moment you lose total control of what is being done to your baby.

So b/c he was having tubes and adenoids this time they said it would take about 30 minutes. I headed out to the waiting room after I gathered up all our stuff- I brought a bunch of toys etc to keep him occupied while we waited beforehand. I had brought some knitting with me in an attempt to keep myself occupied but that wasn't really working so I called home to check on James- who wasn't very happy that we had left him all alone with Nan but decided eventually that he was just going to take a nap. So I am sitting there with my knitting and 30 minutes comes and goes, then 45, then 50, by then I was getting pretty nervous but luckily before I could totally freak out DR Wilson came out to get me. Apparently they had a little bit of trouble getting his IV in so it has taken a little longer than expected. He said he still had quite a bit of infection in his left ear and so he irrigated out the middle ear. I guess his adenoids were quite enlarged and nasty looking as well so he wants him to stay on antibiotics another 2 weeks to make sure that we really get rid of this infection. Then I asked him about his tonsils and he said, "well... one thing at a time." So not the response I was hoping for. I guess they didn't look great but the Dr. was concerned about doing tubes, an adenoidectomy, and a tonsillectomy all at the same time unless it was urgently necessary. We had discussed a tonsillectomy prior to the surgery but at the time Xander didn't seem to really need it so... hopefully he won't still need it in the future.

So Xander was still asleep in a nurses' arms when I got to the recovery room which was a big change from the last time when I got in there and he was already freaking.... They transferred him to me which woke him up so it probably wasn't the best thing ever but I needed to hold him and make sure he was alright. He was pretty feisty again this time but it was better all and all. He still cried and trashed a lot but I at least felt like this time you could calm him a little and he did have periods where he would doze back off and rest quietly. He really did not like the oximetry probe and the IV though- he kept shaking his foot with the oximeter on it until they finally had to take it off b/c he was so wild about it. He would have ripped that IV right out if he had been able to get a hold of it but we managed to keep it out of his grasp. This was a better experience overall too b/c I didn't feel like they were kicking us out the door the second he was remotely awake. He had to be able to drink before we could leave and they could take the IV so we were quite so rushed- he was really fully awake and more himself before we left. It was really funny though because I was sitting in the rocking chair with him and he was drifting in and out and then all of a sudden he was awake and he says the me "look mama there's a train track!" and he started pointing at the ceiling where there was indeed some train tracks running across the ceiling. It was just as if you had flipped a light switch and he was totally and complete awake and aware- it was just kinda weird!

So we left the hospital and headed home and he was really good the rest of the day. He wanted to watch some TV so we let him watch some Diego and he seemed kinda sleepy and drowsy the rest of the morning. He was pretty content to just sit on the couch and he took his nap with no fussing. When he woke up from his nap he was basically back to his old self. We tried to keep him mostly contained but he was raring to go. So the plan is to go to swim class tomorrow- we'll see how he is when he wakes up in the morning!