Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Tonsils are overrated, really.

Hi everyone! For those that haven't seen any updates elsewhere, Stephen's tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy yesterday was a complete success. The doc said it all went perfectly, and there were no problems!

We got there, and didn't have to spend too much time in the waiting room, but Stephen made a new friend while we were out there. He also enjoyed playing some "Boo!" with Daddy while we waited. We were taken back to a "staging" area, where they took vitals, and met with the doctor and anesthesiologist. Stephen was also given these super cool jammies to wear! Those are tigers on there, by the way. The pants were about a foot too long, so we kept having to roll them up. They also gave him those little socks with grippies on the bottom.Yes, I am that mom that takes the camera to the hospital! Stephen was actually in a good mood that morning, in spite of the fact that he hadn't eaten or had anything to drink in over an hour.I don't know what this face was, exactly. I think he was saying something, and then blinked when the flash went off. Or it might have been intentional - he is Erik's son, after all!"So THIS is where my tonsils are, Mom?" Again, I'm not exactly sure how I managed to get this one...In between visits from various medical professionals, we walked all over the staging area. We found this wagon back in the play room, and Erik pulled him all over the place for about 20 minutes. Good times. And yes, he DOES want a wagon now!This is a couple of hours post-op, after he'd had some pain meds and rested a bit. Thank goodness for room service! After he finished his first cup, we ordered 3 more to keep in the freezer down the hall, so he could have them later. And boy, did he! For "dinner," he had 2 more cups!Stephen wanted to show that he can give Grandpa Big Rick a run for his money in the 'stache department!This was this morning. Stephen was feeling tremendously better after a good night sleep, and was pretty much back to normal. In fact, shortly after this photo was taken, he managed to get out of that black cover-thing (protecting his IV), and while I was getting that back on, he pulled off the sock, and took off his pulse-ox meter. And that was not the only time he did that before we were discharged... We had mixed experiences with our nursing staff. Our nurse in recovery was very nice, but she didn't want to wake Stephen up (he'd fallen asleep in my arms after he came out of anesthesia) to give him any pain meds. Unfortunately, by the time we got to our room, and all of his info was in the computer, he was waaay overdue, and was frantic with pain. Our nurse then was trying to get him taken care of, but she could only do so much without that information from the computer. Our next nurse wasn't much better, but the night staff was awesome. They kept on top of his meds, and respected my requests not to wake him to monitor his BP, and waited until he woke on his own. This morning, Stephen seemed more like himself. All he wanted to do was get up and walk around, but with the IV in his leg, that was just impossible. And unfortunately, due to that IV, Stephen had to wear diapers while we were in the hospital. They had to monitor his urine output, to make sure he was hydrated enough. Luckily, however, when we got home today, Stephen got right back into the groove of using the potty, minus the M&M rewards, of course.

We have already noticed a difference in the pitch and tone of Stephen's voice. It seems much less whiny and nasally than before. Additionally, when Erik was reading to him last night, he was imitating sounds more, and seemed more engaged in the stories, we suspect because he could hear the words more clearly, and was associating them with the pictures in the stories.

2 comments:

Super Aunt Beth said...

He came through it all like a champ!

Patty said...

Yep, he sure did!