What a long, long day. I know that we will all be in bed early tonight! I am not sure how much Jeff and I slept last night, anticipating today. We finally just got up about 515am, got showered and dressed and were at the hospital at 630am this morning. We waited for a bit, then we were called in about 715am. We got Brennan dressed in this cute little pj outfit, with pants and a little shirt that tied in the back. I should have brought my camera for that one! We answered numerous questions from nurses, Drs., anesthesiologists, etc. regarding medical history and such. Then finally at 815 am we were able to walk him back to the operating room doors, they let you go right up to the doors. I remember doing this with him on his first heart surgery, although it was a much longer walk and much harder to leave him then. They told us it would be about 30-40 minutes until they were done. And of course at 30 minutes we were watching the clock, but it wasn't until an hour and 15 minutes later that they finally came to get us. The Dr. apologized for taking so long, but it turns out that poor Brennan has terrible veins for getting an IV started. They worked for over 30 minutes and had to poke him 20+ times to get the IV running, finally in his foot (poor baby!). Thank goodness he was mildly sedated at that point, thanks to the gas mask they give right when they come in the OR. Then after the IV was started they had to start the antibiotics he needs for his heart condition, and let those get running before they could start the procedure.
They ended up removing his adenoids and placing ear tubes in both ears. He had a fair amount of fluid that had built up in both ears and his adenoids were almost completely blocking his nasal passage. So I am glad that had both taken care of.
When we saw him afterwards he was thrashing around, coming out of the anesthesia. He had a difficult time with that, and they were ready to sedate him again, when he finally settled down in my arms. He rested on and off for about 45 minutes. Then they finally removed his IV and had him drink a bit of apple juice and we were finally able to head home.
The recovery time isn't bad, just today and possibly tomorrow, with him out of sorts. The hardest part of this whole process is that now we need to be extra cautious with him in any sort of water. He cannot get his ears wet at all, so bath time should be interesting!
Thank you for all the positive thoughts and prayers. It really keep us calm knowing that so many people were thinking of all of us today.
Lots of love,
The Grady's
2 comments:
You should be able to use earplugs while he's in the bath. If you want you can talk to my sister....her daughter just had the surgery about 6 months ago.
Get Doc ProPlug EarPlugs. You can get them on-line or through a pharmacy. They are awesome. We too have to use them around any sort of water. It actually sounds much worse than it really is. it becomes second nature after awhile.
Candace (Paige's sister)
Post a Comment