??(Picture top left – a little confused post surgery, top right – happy before surgery, middle left – sleeping post surgery, bottom left – ER on Day 5, bottom right – sleeping post surgery)
On Thursday, October 16th, 2014, Ty had his tonsils and adenoids removed by Dr. Rizzo at the Peoria Surgery Center. ??As useful (or not) as tonsils may be, we decided to have Ty’s removed because (a) they were very large and I had long worried about large tonsils not helping some of his swallow issues and (b) his apnea history, snoring, and breathing at night created concern that apnea is still an issue. ?? I think I have PTSD from his apnea days and felt that in Ty’s case, it was just safer all the way around to have them removed. ??The Dr. was shocked that no one had encouraged me to get them out before when he looked at them. ??I was going to have a sleep study done to substantiate the decision but the Dr. thought it completely unnecessary in Ty’s particular case.
This is a little icky to look at, but I took a macro shot of Ty’s large tonsils pre-surgery. ??:) ??See how small his airways were?
The day before surgery, Jim got a text from our friend Matt. ??Turns out, Matt was going to be Ty’s surgical nurse. ??That made me feel so much better to know Matt would be with him. ?? Throughout Matt’s medical career, he has worked at a few different valley hospitals and it always seems to benefit us because he ends up where we are at. ?? ??As you can imagine, this news made Ty very happy. ??He loves Matt. ??Matt got a huge Ty hug pre-surgery.
Papa was in Canada on a goose hunt, and the 16th was Sweetie’s birthday so she spent the day with us along with our personal nurse, Aunt Kristina.
Surgery Day
We got to the hospital by about 7:30 AM and Ty was in bright spirits. ?? Surgery went fine and he seemed to recover more happily from the anesthetic than usual (in terms of mood). ?? He was pretty out of it and Jim and I were giggling at the “inebriated like” version of our little guy. ??That was a sight to behold all by itself. ??Ty didn’t utter a single pain complaint and was commenting on how wonderful it was that he got to have ice cream, play video games on the front couch, and most especially have visitors. ?? ??Grandma Cheri and Little Grandma came to visit on surgery day and while he was not his usual self at that point, he was so happy they came. ?? ?? ??As much as the anesthetic seemed to help him initially, the zofran must have worn off because he threw up a total of six times over 13 hours. ?? This totally threw his system for a loop. ?? ??He had a bright spot in his day at about 4:30 PM where he did the following video for me:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g49K9XdKEJw&list=UUzo-EWWCYBatD5n-W5q9W3g
Shortly after this video, he started getting nauseous again. ??I had him sleep beside me on Tori’s trundle bed so that we could run the humidifier all night. ??That first night, he woke in a panic with Alice In Wonderland symptoms (it was a particularly bad case). ??My biggest fear was that he would end up with migraines on top of it but thankfully that didn’t happen. ??He has quite a bit of post surgery dizziness and that is usually the strong predecessor to the bad migraines. ??I did give him a mountain dew slush hoping it would be a double whammy for throat and to caffeinate the headache.
One funny thing that happened that morning was when the nurse was preparing him for surgery, she asked him if he had any crowns or caps, jewelry or piercings. ??His reply was so Ty.
“No. ??And I don’t have any tattoos either!”
Day 2
He woke up telling me what a wonderful mom I am for sleeping in the room with him and for “serving him” and made sure I knew how much he loves me.?? In the early morning hours he said “Actually, I am glad I had my tonsils out???I have got to play video games and you have slept in the room with me and I am getting ice cream???.so ya???it’s been good!”?? This morning Tori asked for ice cream for breakfast like Ty.?? I said no.?? Ty follows that with, “Awwww???I hope Tori can get her tonsils out someday.”???? He meant that in the best of ways.?? 🙂 ?? Day 2 was a good day and again, no complaints about surgery pain. ??He also got to enjoy a visit from Aunt Jodi and kids and she brought him a milkshake. ??Aunt Brooke and the kids came too and brought him a slushie. ??He was in slushie heaven.
Day 3
He was more quiet and was in obvious pain based on his facial expressions alone.?? It was so sad to watch him struggle to swallow.?? BUT he would not utter a complaint.?? Going through this with Ty has been like aftercare with a newborn because you just have to watch all the signs to make decisions as he can’t give helpful feedback verbally.?? He didn’t eat much. ??We continued to encourage him to drink and he was really good about complying BUT I wish we would have been monitoring how MUCH he drank because turns out he was taking a whole lot of super little drinks. ?? Consider this foreshadowing…
Day 4
Started out rough.?? He woke at 7:00 AM (Troy was to blame) and was completely out of it which is unusual for Ty.?? 10 minutes later he ASKED to go back to bed.?? He was pale with washed out lips and admitted his tummy was hurting (which means he was in a LOT of pain considering he had yet to say word one about his throat). ??He didn’t wake up until 11 AM.
I felt like something was really off so I called the Dr. at that point. ??We gave him milk of magnesia at 1:00 and he threw it up and went back to sleep.?? Ultimately slept all but about 3 hours of the day.?? Took him to ER at 6:30 PM where they found he was compacted with stool and air and did an enema.?? When we got home, he couldn’t eat again due to tummy pain. ??I felt so bad for him at that point because I thought we had solved the problem. ??We tried to give him miralax and he threw that up.???? I gave him 1 tsp of his meds at that point and put him to bed.?? He was very restless in his sleep. ?? Day 4 ended up being the LAST day he took any pain medication.
Day 5
At 8:00 AM I tried to wake him for pain meds but he refused them (as we were all beginning to suspect the pain meds were making him sick). ??I talked to the surgery center nurse and we determined that he was dehydrated. ?? She told me that he needed 1 to 2 liters of fluid every 24 hours.?? With consistent “sipping” and then vomiting, I know he wasn’t getting that.?? He had only urinated about once every 12 to 13 hours since Fri/Sat that I was paying attention to after thought.
At 9:00 AM I took Ty to Mendy’s place.?? He was moderately dehydrated so they gave him the “Dr. Rizzo” cocktail of an IV, Decadron (steroid to help with swelling), and Zofran.?? He didn’t perk up immediately but by mid afternoon, he was significantly improved.???? His last dosage of Hycet (Hydroco/Acetamin 7.5-325MG SOL BOC) was at 11:00 PM on Sunday night (Day 4).?? By Monday morning, he refused any pain medicine.?? By that time, the general consensus was that the pain meds were much more difficult on Ty than the pain itself.?? At 36 hours past that decision, he was doing wonderfully on the pain management scale.?? I didn’t even give him Tylenol because he did not want it and did not show any signs of needing. ?? This was, admittedly, a risk because Ty won’t tell us if he is having pain until his pain is really significant.?? Jim and I both agreed though that he was holding his own.?? He was in pain of course, you could see that when he swallowed, but Ty manages pain on his own really well and I was very nervous about any more drugs to his system and upsetting the apple cart at that point.?? I did get a zofran prescription for just in case but should Ty ever need surgery again, I don’t think hydrocodone is the right drug for him.???? This was Ty’s fifth surgery. ?? Ultimately, he didn’t need the zofran once he was off the hycet. ??(And for future reference, I worried that Ty may be allergic to IV zofran after his migraine hospitalization but he seemed to do fine with it in surgery recovery).
Day 6
(10/21/14) Woke up well on his own.?? Had 100 fever and was saying it was painful to eat but when I told him he would have to take some medicine again if it hurt too much to eat, he immediately started trying to scarf it down.?? He was more afraid of the medicine at that point.?? I just gave him regular children’s tylenol (at 9:00 AM).?? Sympathetic baby brother said, “Ty is that gwoss?”?? Ty’s response was a disgusted shiver.?? Troy then looks at me and says “Ty not like it!!!!!?? TAKE IT AWAY!”???? I have the sweetest little boys.
During the evening, he ate and drank much more normally and I finally slept in my own bed and gave Tanner night patrol duty.
Day 7
Was a good day.?? He seemed pretty normal.?? The only thing I noticed as an issue was that he was still only wanting to eat very soft foods.?? I gave him a chopped salad (without anything too crunchy) and a fruit salad and he thought both were too difficult to swallow.
Day 8
Seemed better in what he was willing to eat. ??Ate a grilled cheese.
Day 14
Went to the state fair and was happy and back to normal.
What I WISH I would have been told at the surgery center PRIOR to surgery:
1. ?? Don’t just encourage your little patient to drink. ?? Make sure their intake is 1-2 liters of fluid every 24 hours.
2. ??If you suspect low tolerance to the pain meds, get a zofran prescription early.
3. ??Start miralax on DAY 1 so that the pain meds have less of a chance of causing constipation.
I must confess that mama spent those two weeks in awe of Ty. ?? His ability to navigate difficult and painful circumstances with a happy heart is simply??unparalleled. ?? I was so, incredibly, humbled and felt so blessed to have the experience of watching??what suffering with utter GRACE looks like. ?? If only to be like Ty…