The night before surgery day wasn't a great one. I couldn't sleep, I kept tossing and turning all night long, and the short amounts of time I did sleep, I kept dreaming about the surgery and waking myself up. I got up a few minutes before the alarm went off at 4 a.m. and made myself get out of bed a few minutes later. I got the little guy up at 4:30 and he was all bright eyed and bushy tailed! He almost woke his Granny up because he was talking pretty loud during breakfast. He did great on the ride to the hospital, sat straight up in his chair to watch Mickey Mouse.
We got to the hospital for 5:30, checked in and was brought to the back by 6:00. Then the waiting game started. He was still in a really good mood and even tried rolling off the bed a few times. Of course, the Disney Channel was on so he was in Heaven! He was just starting to get tired at around 7:00 when they came give him some relaxer (similar to Zanex) and before we knew it, his eyes were rolling around he was very very happy! hehe You hate to laugh, but it really was kinda funny. They finally took him back around 8:00 and before we knew it, the Orthopedic doc came out and told us he did a great job, but they had to put four pins in his foot instead of just three. Then not long after the anesthesiologist came out and said he was doing great still and then the Urologist said he was done. The anesthesiologist came back and asked us permission to do a block on him which is basically like an epidural. It numbs everything from waist down so it would cover pain management for 8-10 hours for both areas. He said Lucas probably wouldn't be able to move his legs for a couple of hours.
The doc took us back to recovery and the little guy was still sleeping. The nurses were all hovering around him because he's just so cute! (If we don't get told a hundred times, we don't get told at old. But really, we don't mind, we know he's a cutie. I say he looks like me, even though he clearly looks like Josh! LOL) Anyways, he woke up a few minutes after we got back there and was moving his legs like ten minutes later!! The anesthesiologist came back and said that they had to remove the trach and put a special tube to get the medicine in and have him breathe at the same time. (Since he's had his trach so long and his airways are pretty much healed, some of the air was coming right back out of the hole from around the trach tube.) Well he said in all the times he's done this, he's NEVER seen a child suck a pacifier when doing this and keep sucking it during the entire surgery!
The orthopedic doc said he did so well during surgery that we didn't have to stay the night after all! That was very exciting! And all he had to do was urinate and we were free to go home. But of course, it took him over two hours to potty!!!
The doc put a "soft" cast on his foot in the operating room so I didn't get to see the rods sticking out of his foot. But we do have to go change the cast to the hard cast on Wednesday so I will see if I can take some pictures then. I got some good shots of his foot before and will put those up soon too so you can see the before and after pictures later. I got a sneak peek of the x-rays and got to see a picture of the rods in his foot--pretty neat if you like that sort of thing! His little man parts are a bit bruised, but not near as swollen as I thought they were going to be. We've got frozen peas that we have to put on it during the day and it seems to be working. He was in a lot of pain yesterday (I don't think the block worked) and a good bit this morning, but he seemed to be doing much better this evening. He's taking Ibuprofen and Tylenol with codene around the clock so that helps a lot! When he takes the Tylenol, he's completely out of it. His eyes are half closed and he can't stay up, but it helps him get some rest. He must be feeling a a tad bit better because he's sleeping on his belly right now and has rolled over a few times tonight, so that's a good sign!
About the seizures...the neurologist said that she doesn't think what he's been doing with his eyes is a seizure. Since he's "Lucas" when he wakes up--smiling, cooing, laughing, trying to talk--that means he wasn't having a seizure. Only thing is she didn't say what it was. So I guess we keep watching it for now and hopefully it goes away. Maybe it is just the REM sleep (*fingers crossed*) but I guess we'll probably end up having to do another test or see another specialist to find out! I swear, we live at the doctor! And in case you're wondering, I love the doc so much and was so into conversation that I forgot to bitch about the nurses not calling me back. I swear, I'm too easy on this people. But I am starting to get annoyed that EVERY time I see her, she likes to remind me of how bad he looked when he was little. And if there's a resident in the room, which there has been most of the time lately, she has to describe it in detail. Then she wants me to describe it as well. She even asked me if I had a baby picture of him with me, and when I showed her the one I had, she said it wasn't "bad" enough! I'm thinking about putting a flip book of him together. Showing him through his different stages...the beginning, the bad, the worst, and then on the way to healthy. I do think it's about time I share these pictures with everyone, so I will try to get a page of old pictures up here soon for you guys.
When Lucas gets his trach out...we'll have quiet nights. No more loud machines keeping us up!
Joshua story of the day...Daddy and Joshua went to the Zephyr's game tonight and they came home with two baseball bats. Joshua came in the door swinging. He's so cute. I can't wait for him to be old enough to play t-ball. And hopefully his brother can play one day too!
