Jack's surgery went very well. He was able to have his palate corrected all the way to the gumline, which means we shouldn't need more surgery for a few years! He also had a small lip revision to get rid of scar tissue by the nose and round his nose out a bit. We can already tell that it's going to look good.
Okay, now I have to say post-op was terrible. In the PACU room we had the two best nurses ever. However, none of us could get Jack to calm down. They tried morphine and several other narcotics and nothing worked. He would sleep for 10 minutes and wake up screaming. Finally, they decided to transfer us to our private room, because we had tried everything.
The private room did not go any better. I also did not like the nurses quite as much. They were still good, but I felt like they did not listen to me very much. I could tell Jack was in a lot of pain, and all they gave him was .5 ml of tylenol, which is half the normal dose. They said this was standard on the floor. However, the kids who had their tonsils out got tylenol with codine. So basically the next 36 hours were spent with me rocking Jack until he slept, then him waking up screaming, me shooting liquids down his throat, so we could hopefully go home sometime, him screaming some more, ect.ect. As I sat there with him I was trying to hold back my tears. My poor sweet boy. I also couldn't help but think he had done this before, with no pain meds and no one to hold him. My poor baby. Overnight he would scream for 2 hours - no body checked on us, but as soon as I would get him to sleep, someone would come in to get his BP, give tylenol, or whatever, and wake him up. I totally wanted to scream. I was like "I just spent 2 hours getting him to sleep!!!" In the morning the nurses basically were saying he needed another night. When the plastics team came in I pitched my reasons for going home. I basically said he wasn't going to sleep while in the hospital, I'm already getting fluids in via syringe, and would have to force it even if we waited 3 more days, and the only pain meds he was getting was tylenol, which we could do at home. Thank God they agreed with me!
So they sent us home on Friday. As soon as we placed him in the car I knew it was the right decision. He went right to sleep. Then when we got home he took liquids with no force. We gave him a normal dose of infant tylenol, and he slept all night. He woke up at 7:30 drank over 2 glasses of Gatorade and some Pediasure and went right back to sleep. I think we are on the right track. We have a long hall ahead, but he's a trooper. I am so happy to be home and so is Jack. I'm so glad he feels like this is his safe place.
3 comments:
I can not imagine what you went through in post-op. It sounds awful. I am glad it looks good though. Know we are still thinking about you guys and Jack and hope the next few days are more soothing and relaxing for him.
What??? No codiene?? They gave Julianne some - that's crazy!!! Was your first nurse's name Carolyn in the post-op? She wasI awesome! I feel for you guys. I hope the worst of it is over. I know what you mean about waking them up right after you get them to sleep. THAT DROVE ME CRAZY!! I always wanted to ask, "Do you really need to take her blood pressure, temperature, etc. etc. - Isn't sleep more important to the healing of the body??? Hello??"
So glad to hear that Jack is home with you guys to recover, he'll probably be tearing the house apart with his brothers in no time. In the meantime we'll be thinking of you and hope he bounces back quickly!
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