Post-op update

Day of Surgery: 8-12-10

Nojah went back to the pacu at 0830 to be prepped for surgery by the excellent nurses at the hospital. There were some tears shed during this time mostly because needles were involved, but even though there were tears he sat there bravely while the IV was put in. Even after the IV was in and secured you could tell he was still nervous as they kept saying "when we take you back" I don't think he wanted to be "taken back" anywhere, especially where Tob and I weren't and people who were going to cut him open were. Our CRNA came in and talked with us attempting to ease his fears, then promptly gave him some versed, a most wonderful drug, when she realized that may not happen. Within 5 mins he was giggling and seeing 2 of me. He left with the crew at 9:09 with a promise that he was going to have fun back there and get to see some really cool tools.

Dr.Rose came out and talked with us after the procedure saying he had a good sized hernia but that all went really well. The nurse came and got us about 10:45, saying he was having a difficult time waking Nojah up. Well, no surprise there, he's always difficult to wake up. Tob and I went back to help assist in the whole rise and shine process, afterall, I feel like we do pretty well at home. After about 15-20 minutes of talking with him the slurred speech and double vision seemed to ease up some. At this time we took him for a ride on the gurney down to the med-surge floor where more excellent nurses and CNA's helped take care of him and family and friends came to visit. He kept a close eye on the IV and asked often "when does the water get to come out?" After he ate a grilled cheese sandwhich and tolerated that without problems, I assisted him to the bathroom to pee and then asked the nurse if I could take him home. I wanted to get him home and lying down comfortable before all the good drugs wore off and he didn't want to leave. I am at the hospital often enough and didn't care to stay the night. So I removed his IV, which made him very pleased, got a set of vital signs on him, went and signed the paper work and then he was wheeled out to the car and slept most of the way home.

We got him into the house and on to the couch where he stayed for 4 or 5 hours before he had to go to the bathroom. I had given him some tylenol with codeine about 30-40 minutes before this and things still did not go well. He literally screamed bloody murder. I felt horrible for him to have to be in so much pain so I gave him some motrin and then per his request wheeled him via computer chair to the toilet. This whole process took roughly 30 minutes and as many of you know it's not that far to the bathroom in our house. He spent about 10 minutes lounged stiff in the computer chair trying to convince us he didn't need to stand up but that if we got the chair close enough he could pee without getting it on the chair. At that point we just required that he would indeed have to stand up and go to the bathroom. After he finally agreed and got the job done he walked back to the couch and Tob and i helped him with getting his legs back on the couch, secretly hoping he wouldn't have to get up again for a very long time.

He was pretty whiney and painful throughout the evening. I placed frozen pea's over the incision explaing to him that it would help numb things and make it feel better. After about a half hour he held them up for me and said "mom, I can not sleep with pea's on me."

Anyway, we drugged him up and sent him to bed after Grandma Teri and Makenna came to visit. I woke him up at 3:30 in the morning and gave him more pain medication so that he didn't wake up in horrible pain. This morning he woke up and was a little slow moving but has progressed amazingly throughout the day. He watched movies, played video games with his friend Jack and is now wandering around the house, getting up and down on his own with no complaints of any kind and I have only given him Ibuprofen 2 times today. So needless to say he is doing exceptionally well and I have a feeling we are going to have a hard time slowing him down in the up coming weeks. Hopefully tomorrow goes as well as today and things just continue to get better quickly as it's not easy to watch your child hurt.