bigbabyblues
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2004
- Messages
- 12,727
Thought I'd post an update in case anyone remembered he was having surgery and was wondering...
His surgery was on Tuesday the 14th. It was a scary time for us, but it passed fairly quickly even though it lasted about 5-1/2 hours. He spent about 2 hours in recovery then went to a regular room on the neurology floor, he didn't have to go to ICU at all, which was great. He did have to have a blood transfusion, they gave him some of the blood DH had donated for him. At first he had only a little swelling and his eyes were somewhat bruised, but by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning his little eyes swelled completely shut and his head was so swollen, DH said he looked like an alien--I thought that was mean. His little eyes were so swollen and so bruised, it was awful. It was so hard with his eyes swollen shut, he couldn't see until Friday morning. He was so scared and leery of anyone coming in the room, if he heard any voices other than ours, he started screaming. He had to have blood drawn a few times and it was terrible for him; his veins roll so badly anyway, they were having to dig around to find them after they stuck him, it took 10-15 minutes each time they stuck him to get blood. I finally asked if someone else could stick him, and they sent someone from IV Therapy. To top it off, he couldn't see, so he didn't know what was happening to him. He's only 18 months old, so we couldn't really explain it so he could understand either, but we tried. Wednesday afternoon they took his bandages off too, and we got to see his incision. I think he was more comfortable without the bandages. He also pulled his heparin lock out of his ankle, but he still had the IV in his hand, which they took away on Thursday. He started eating solid food on Thursday, his eyes opened on Friday just a little bit, and they let us come home then.
I'm so glad to be home, he's getting better by the hour now it seems like. His eyes are both open, the left one almost all the way. He still has some bruising, but it's going away too, and last night he slept through the night, so we all got to rest. We slept in the hospital too, but 4 nights on a hospital fold out couch is too much for anyone.
I got my Christmas wish, and I realize how fortunate we are. There were so many other kids there who are so much worse off than he is. Yes, his surgery and recovery were and still are really hard to deal with. He'll have his scar forever, but some of those kids will be there so much longer than just a few days, and their problems aren't cut and dry, come in to fix it in a few days kind of things like his was.
Merry Christmas to all,
Steph
His surgery was on Tuesday the 14th. It was a scary time for us, but it passed fairly quickly even though it lasted about 5-1/2 hours. He spent about 2 hours in recovery then went to a regular room on the neurology floor, he didn't have to go to ICU at all, which was great. He did have to have a blood transfusion, they gave him some of the blood DH had donated for him. At first he had only a little swelling and his eyes were somewhat bruised, but by Tuesday night into Wednesday morning his little eyes swelled completely shut and his head was so swollen, DH said he looked like an alien--I thought that was mean. His little eyes were so swollen and so bruised, it was awful. It was so hard with his eyes swollen shut, he couldn't see until Friday morning. He was so scared and leery of anyone coming in the room, if he heard any voices other than ours, he started screaming. He had to have blood drawn a few times and it was terrible for him; his veins roll so badly anyway, they were having to dig around to find them after they stuck him, it took 10-15 minutes each time they stuck him to get blood. I finally asked if someone else could stick him, and they sent someone from IV Therapy. To top it off, he couldn't see, so he didn't know what was happening to him. He's only 18 months old, so we couldn't really explain it so he could understand either, but we tried. Wednesday afternoon they took his bandages off too, and we got to see his incision. I think he was more comfortable without the bandages. He also pulled his heparin lock out of his ankle, but he still had the IV in his hand, which they took away on Thursday. He started eating solid food on Thursday, his eyes opened on Friday just a little bit, and they let us come home then.
I'm so glad to be home, he's getting better by the hour now it seems like. His eyes are both open, the left one almost all the way. He still has some bruising, but it's going away too, and last night he slept through the night, so we all got to rest. We slept in the hospital too, but 4 nights on a hospital fold out couch is too much for anyone.
I got my Christmas wish, and I realize how fortunate we are. There were so many other kids there who are so much worse off than he is. Yes, his surgery and recovery were and still are really hard to deal with. He'll have his scar forever, but some of those kids will be there so much longer than just a few days, and their problems aren't cut and dry, come in to fix it in a few days kind of things like his was.
Merry Christmas to all,
Steph
