Hospital Stay 1 - Day 4

January 15, 2016 - Day 4

Surgery Day! Today is going to be a long day. The morning started at 4am with a blood draw. Once again they didn't want to use his IV in case they did something to it, so they determined that they would do a heal stick again. It went AWFUL. Levi Screamed and screamed. Today's nurse was definitely not as good as yesterday's. And then to make matters worse they came back in at 4:45am and told us that the blood had clotted and was no good. The IV team came in and stuck his other foot two times before getting the blood they needed. What a rough rough morning! Thankfully we were able to get Levi to go back to sleep until around 8am.

Lots of distractions throughout the day.

He watched a LOT of TV and videos. 

After 8am the long day started. We were told that surgery was scheduled for 4pm, but that if they were able to get Levi in sooner they were going to. His surgery was considered an add on, but not emergency, so they did not want him to have anything by mouth all day. Have you ever told a 19 month old they can't eat or drink all day?! It was awful! Around 9am they started an IV for the day, it was a very slow drip but did give him some sugar. Although this wasn't going to make him happy or make him feel full, it did help a little with his brain not sending constant signals of feed me. But it did pose the additional problem of being hooked to a line all day. We did the best we could with trying to teach him how to walk while attached to a pole, but well, he's a toddler. The day was filled with lots of movies and TV. Around 12:30 he went down for nap. And I hid in the bathroom and ate two donuts and drank an orange soda. There was no way I was tempting fate of him waking up and seeing me eating.

He finally napped.

At 3:45 they came in and told us the surgery was on and we needed to clear as many of his stuffed animals and blankets off the bed as possible. We assumed that they would be right back in, but we waited and waited. Around 4:30 they came back in, they had had to find where he could go. Due to the fact that he was under precautions for his cold he wasn't allowed to go to the normal child pre-op waiting error.

Eventually they brought us down stairs. Levi enjoyed the ride in the crib! Once we were down there he hated being in the crib. At first I didn't think they would let us hold him, but they did. They would allow one of us to go back to the OR with him until he fell asleep. So I gowned up. Levi gave hugs to daddy, and I lugged him back to the OR. Once we were back there things went pretty quickly. He did not want to let me go, so I actually fully held him this time while he went under. Once he was out, I layed him down, gave him a kiss, and the ushered me out.

Now the waiting begins. Normally I am a great waiter and am calming Jay down, but during surgery it was the other way around. Jay was eating a sandwich and relaxing, and I was a nervous mess. It seemed like FOREVER, but finally our pager went off and Levi was in Recovery. The surgeon came out and talked to us, he said surgery went well, the port went in without a problem, and should last him several years depending on how quick he grows. He said post op care is pretty easy. He could take a bath on Sunday and besides that just don't submerge him until the sterri strips fall off, give tylenol for pain as needed, and nothing else. Seemed pretty easy.

We got back to recovery and Levi was still asleep. He woke up several minutes later and he was MAD. I don't know that I have ever heard Levi scream and scream and scream the way he did as he was coming to. About 30 minutes later he fell back asleep again for about 5 minutes, when he woke up he was better but still angry. We offered him a popsicle and he wanted nothing to do with it. After about another 30 minutes he finally smiled and asked for the popsicle. We gave it to him and he lounged around and ate it. When it was gone, he handed me the stick and said "more". Well no mom is going to resist that and he began eating the second popsicle.

Popsicle Number 1.

At this point they determined he could head back to his room and he went for another ride in his crib.

Popsicle Number 2. And a ride in the crib.

Once we got upstairs he wanted to walk around and we let him. He also asked for a third popsicle. Sure we said. He then ping ponged around the room, eating a bite here and a bite there of everything in site. Goldfish, ice cream, pasta, crackers, apple, granola bar.

At this point it was past his bedtime but we didn't care, we were going to let him stay up. About 9:30 he hit a wall and was done! We put some PJ's on, and put him in his bed. About 30 minutes later he was out cold.

A very long day!! But now he has the port which should help in the future with blood draws and infusions. Hopefully he has a good night and tomorrow brings good news.