Surgery Update

I just thought i'd post a quick update to let everyone know that Henry did extremely well with his surgery. Henry was such a little trooper and the staff at Children's Hospital really made it as easy as possible. I was able to go back with Henry (carrying him and Ralph his monkey) the whole way and sit him on the operating bed. The anesthesiologist held the mask over his nose and i just kept talking to him and stroking him. He was trying to get away and you could tell that it was making him feel strange, but he didn't cry out or even really struggle much-- just tried to turn his head from side to side. I was really dreading that part so it was nice that he went to sleep pretty peacefully.

The surgery and getting him to recovery took about 2 hours and we got back to see him just a minute or two after he had woken up. The little girl next to him was really, really crying, and he had just started to cry when we walked in the room. I was able to pick him up and hold him right away and calm him down. He was quiet and mostly content and drank some apple juice. The rest of the hospital stuff was really non-eventful.

We got home and he took some real short cat-naps but nothing like everyone else experienced with their kids that have been through surgery. He was mostly content to just lay on the couch with JT and i drinking and eating some crackers and yogurt and stuff. As the afternoon wore on and the caudal block they used in the surgery (like an epidural) wore off, he was fussing and crying more and that was the most heart-breaking part. You could tell he was in pain and just trying to soldier through.

We called the Dr. after he seemed to be in pain even after getting his dose of Tylenol with codeine. The Dr. told us to double the dose, that they start them off with 1/2 the recommended dose (which is fine, but it would have been nice to KNOW that, grr). Anyway, we put Henry to bed about 6:30 and he slept until 8 this morning. He woke up as if nothing had happened, had a happy day playing around and throwing some normal toddler tantrums and went to bed a little on the early side at 7. Other than a dose of regular tylenol at bedtime he didn't have any pain medication at all and didn't complain all day. So hopefully we're through the worst of it, and now we just have to make sure he takes all his antibiotics and other medications to help everything heal. He'll have his dressing removed on Monday and then have a follow-up in two weeks.

Just to keep everything interesting, we're heading to Carmax to hopefully buy the new (used) car we had shipped from Nashville and then on Sunday i'm traveling for work.