Tonsillectomy/Adenoidectomy

August 17, 2010

5:45 A.M.  I woke Isaac up from a deep sleep, which is not something I wish to do on a normal occassion.  Lets just say he's not a good one for waking up before he's ready.  We left Isaac in his pajama's and changed his diaper.  We told him we were going for a ride in the van.  What 2 1/2 year old wouldn't want to ride with Mommy and Daddy?  On the way to Sioux Falls he kept asking where we were going.  I finally told him that we were going to Sioux Falls.  The prior week I had been telling him about his surgery but our conversation always ended with him upset because he didn't want to go to the doctor.  We arrived at the surgical tower a little after 7:00 and checked in.  Isaac was such a big boy.  He stood on the big scale without a fuss and allowed them to get his height.  The first battle came when it was time to put hospital pajamas on.  He has a hard time transitioning from shorts to pants and since he's still wearing shorts, he was not having any part to do with the pajama pants.  The next battle came when it was time to put on his identification and allergy bracelets.  We had to put them on his ankle and cover them up with his socks.  The biggest battle was trying to get his blood pressure taken.  That was one hard task and he fought it the entire way.  The anethesiologist came in and spoke with us.  He asked if we wanted to give Isaac some medication prior to sedating him.  It would relax him a little and easier to put him to sleep.  Because Isaac is not good at taking medication we all decided we would skip it.  The anethesiologist thought it would be better not to have to hold him down and scare him even more. 

Surgery was supposed to be at 8:30 and the doctor thought we would be ahead of schedule.  It was a little after 9:30 before the nurses came to get him.  Isaac did pretty well watching cartoons while we waited.  The nurses wheeled him away in a red wagon.  He had no problem with that but I am guessing once he went through the double doors he was screaming.  Surgery itself took about 20 minutes and then he went to recovery.  We were able to be with him about 11:00 or so.  He was quite upset and in pain.  I held him and he fell asleep on my lap.  His oxygen started to drop.  They want it 92 or above and his had dropped to 84.  They put some oxygen on him for a half hour or so until it started to come up.  Then we were checked into a room at the Children's Hospital.  Isaac did amazingly well.  He downed about 4 popsicles in the first couple hours and only improved from there.  We kept him medicated every 4 hours to keep on top of the pain.  He was hooked to his IV for over 24 hours but seemed to do quite well with it. 

Good friends from Church, Dennis and Gracia came to visit before Isaac went into surgery.  That was nice that we were able to have them there.  Grandma and Grandpa K came to visit in the afternoon and Isaac was happy about that.  Daddy stayed until about 8:30 or so and then headed home.  I stayed with Isaac and slept in his bed with him.  He slept well until the meds wore off.  We started giving him oral meds in the night so we had to wake him up to get him to take it.  He did pretty well with how awful the medication tastes.

The doctor filling in for our surgeon made his rounds early Wednesday morning and told us we could leave whenever we were ready.  Daddy came and picked us up around 10:00 or so.  Isaac was very happy to be going home.  Wednesday afternoon Isaac had trouble with pain and it only continued from there.  It was darn near a week before he could ease up on his pain medication and didn't complain about pain every 2 hours.  It was a hard go but he's finally on the mend.  He still tells me his throat hurts every so often but he's been medication free for almost a week now which is a huge relief.  The medication he was on had some nasty side effects.  He was very restless, mood changes, dreaming,  no fun for a 2 year old.

Tomorrow is his 2 week check up and I expect that everything will have healed nicely.  I can already say that his sleeping habits have improved a ton.  It still takes him quite a while to fall asleep, but once asleep he does not snore, he sleeps with his mouth closed and he hardly moves all night long.  The next step will be to get him to his own bed.  I think he likes sleeping with Mommy a little too much!!!!  I don't mind now that he isn't restless.  We're not going to push the issue quite yet.  I'm pretty sure he won't be sleeping in bed with me when he's 15. 

Isaac was a trooper during his surgery and recovery.  I can only imagine how much his throat did hurt but he did great.  It's nice that he's eating now and not on a popsicle diet anymore.  His little brother didn't understand why he couldn't have popsicles for breakfast too!

Caleb had a good time staying with Grandma and Grandpa B while Isaac recovered.  He was very excited to see Isaac but it took a few days for Isaac to come around to wanting to play with Caleb.

Here's a few pictures of Isaac at the hospital. 

IV he had in for over 24 hours

First sip of water after surgery

Snuggling with Daddy

Having a popsicle

That was good

Finally a little smile

Exhausted but ready to go home!