The Big Operation

I stole Bode from his bed at 5:00 this morning. We drove downtown to Memorial Hospital and checked in by 5:30. They had some very impressive, unnaturally LARGE fish in their fish tank and we didn't wait long before going back to a pre-op room. The nurses and techs were wonderful. Bode did awesome. We played with the monitors while we waited for his nurse to check us in. Checked out their potty (not nearly as cool as the potties yesterday). Read a book. The nurse came in and assessed him, which he took in stride. She came back with a 5-pack of cars for him which we promptly ran up and down the head of the bed. Then he started to get nervous and we talked about that. He asked to go home. He asked for his dad. We read more books. We watched the Bindi girl show on TLC. Finally the anesthesiologist i requested came in to chat. Then the OR nurse. Then our surgeon.

At 7:30, we were off to the OR. I rode with him in the stretcher and held him in the OR while they gave him some gas to knock him out. Mildly unpleasant, but i was glad i got to go in with him. He went right to sleep. And i went out to the waiting room.

Thankfully it wasn't a long procedure and Dr Smith was out to talk to me by 8:20. (I was watching the clock and promised myself i wouldn't get nervous until after 8:30). He said in addition to enlarged tonsils, his adenoids were huge. He said with that combination, Bode was really "fighting a battle" when it came to breathing, sleeping; etc. So i was relieved to hear that--made me feel like we'd made the right decision to have the surgery.

After he left, i was left to wait for someone from the recovery room to retrieve me. This is when i got nervous. Because i knew he was already in recovery and i started to wonder why they weren't coming for me.

A tech came out after about 15 minutes and brought me to Bode. He was delirious. Totally upset and crying. I crawled into the stretcher with him and he calmed down for awhile. Then he'd go back and forth between delirium and calm. The nurse gave him a little more fentanyl (an IV narcotic) to sedate him a bit so he could wake up more slowly. And after about 90 minutes he was much more with it, making sense, and so sweet in that big stretcher asking for the motorcycle toys i'd promised him as we'd rolled down to the OR earlier. The kid doesn't miss a beat.

Out of recovery room, we were taken to his room on peds for an overnight stay. The hospital just opened a new tower that houses peds and it's beautiful. We had a lovely view of the mountains. A big private room. I was impressed with a playroom in the middle of the circular tower.

I have to say, though, i totally understand why nursing sometimes gets a bad rap. It hasn't as much lately with the nursing shortage we were in (are we still in one?). But i do understand in the sense that, in my opinion, you get better care from your critical area nurses (i.e. labor and delivery, ER, ICU, OR) than when your on the floor. Having said that, nurses are not superhuman, and having a large patient load is really hard. Even if it's less acute care, caring for 6-9 patients is HARD. I have no idea how many other patients our nurse had, but I immediately felt like the nurses were extremely busy and we didn't rate very high on their acuity scale. And i get it. There were most certainly much sicker kids there who needed more attention. But i'll just leave this part at: i wasn't overly impressed.

He did really well in the room. He was still emotional. He was upset that the IV was still in and the O2 saturation monitor still on. Totally normal stuff. But he coped pretty well. We read more books, watched a couple DVDs. He ate some ice cream and macaroni and cheese. He got a second dose of pain medication around 2PM and took a nice 2 1/2 hour nap.



After his nap and when Doug arrived with Keegen for a second visit, i decided Bode needed a change in scene. He was crying more and complaining more about his IV. I went out and talked to one of the nurses to make sure i could unhook his O2 sat and unplug his IV pump. So i did and we headed for the playroom. Gorgeous, posh circular playroom with floor to ceiling windows where we spied a train table and trucks and so many other goodies. Only to find the door locked. On the door was a big sign saying it was open. So i asked the same nurses i'd just talked to about getting in and she said it's closed (huh?! why would such a place close?). I pointed to the sign. She said a volunteer has to be in there with us. OK, so call a volunteer. I hear the nurse on the phone and can tell there is no such person available right now. And the nurse just walks away without saying a word. I was TICKED. I have this child who has been so brave and needs a break and here we are standing outside looking in at the perfect solution. And we can't go in? Oooooh. TICKED.

I had already been considering taking Bode home that night. Like i said, he wasn't getting stellar care. I could tell the day was starting to wear on him. He wasn't comfortable. The benefit of staying was that he was getting IV fluid which would give him a good hydration reserve if he stops drinking enough over the next couple of days.

Back in the room, Bode basically shut down. Totally emotional. Crying a lot. Inconsolable. Really complaining about the IV. Doug and i talked about taking him home. I called the nurse in. Told her i wanted to take him home after he gets his IV steroid which was due right then anyway. She made a phone call to our surgeon and got him to call in his pain med prescription. It took about 30 minutes all the while Bode is really struggling. Which is making me wonder if we should, indeed, stay. But i realized, "what are they going to do for him that i can't do other than the IV?"

I commented to her that he suddenly stopped coping in the past 30 or so minutes. She had the steroid and was trying to inject it through the IV. And it wouldn't work. We pulled back his little mesh glove over his IV and realized it had infiltrated. It was out of the vein and the fluid was flowing into the surrounding tissues. Which is really painful. So. Out came the IV. (And he didn't get that final steroid which was upsetting to me because it would help keep the swelling down). And my decision was suddenly very easy to make. We were out of there. He needed the comfort of home.

On the drive home, we passed the little traveling amusement park that Bode noticed last week. And oh how he wanted to stop and "go to the circus." It was ridiculous but adorable how disappointed he was that we weren't stopping.

He's in bed now and snoring away. Definitely swollen in there. Hopefully he'll get a good night's sleep.