We had to be here early at 6:15 to check in for surgery. We are in the other day surgery area, opposite of the one we were in last year with Travis. It's a little smaller, so we got to know the other families while we were waiting.
Here's some pre-surgery pictures. When we were prepping Justin for surgery, my mom suggested that we find out if Justin would get some special pajamas to wear like Travis did last year. I actually asked the person who called with our surgery time and she said no, so I was a little disappointed. So I had to come up with some other "cool" things that Justin would like about surgery. It really all comes down to ice cream for him. But then he ended up getting PJs so it was cool for him too. The other kids were too young to catch on to the "coolness" factor.
Justin went in a little after 8:15 and he was out by 9 am. He was more restless than Travis and it took longer got him to calm down after medication. He did finally go to sleep after the medicine kicked in. They didn't even offer Justin a popcicle, which was fine because he wouldn't have touched it. He was one whiny baby!
We got to the room around 11 am after a slight delay. Our recovery nurse was very anxious to get rid of us. She called several times to check on the room. It turned out they were replacing the TV and then they had to touch up the paint around it, so they had to wait for it to dry! It turns out I was really glad there was a TV since I didn't get out from under Justin for most of the next 18 hours. It was me and the TV remote!
And a little napping too. Which was good since we only got about 5 hours sleep the night before!
The reasons they wanted to keep Justin overnight was because he is young, he has DS, and the reason for the tonsil removal was sleep apnea. The tonsil removal can cause swelling and that can cause the apnea to increase. So they had an IV hooked up keeping him hydrated and a pulse ox on to monitor the oxygen levels. The afternoon was non-stop alarm madness! Both the IV and the pulse ox were beeping and Randy just stood there to watch the monitors and silence them as necessary. Randy finally had to leave to head to the airport for a conference out of town. So that left me to listen to the alarms since I couldn't reach them (holding Justin and all...) In the evening the nurse finally decided to give him supplemental oxygen through a cannula. By this time, the activity in the room had gotten to Justin and he was nearly beside himself every time the door opened. It took both of us to get the cannula on him. So he had O2, IV, and pulse ox on his nose, arm, and toe. There was no moving him very far!
They turned off the O2 around midnight and while the alarms continued to harangue us, Justin did well enough to get released in the morning. The alarms were even in my dreams during the 2 1/2 hours I slept! Good thing we were up for 6 am rounds! The nurse and I managed to remove the IV and the tape on his face from the cannula, but the heart monitor stickers stayed on. I took quite a bit to get them off of Travis last year too. And the tape residue lasted at least a week. Apparently it's uncomfortable to rub on boys' chests with nail polish remover. Who knew?
Check out our tiny pile of stuff compared to our Ike pile!
I spent the whole time having flashbacks to heart surgery. The first thing that came to my head was the song " As the Mountains Surround Jerusalem". I laid there, surrounding Justin as he was sleeping, and thinking how faithful God has been surrounding us the past three years. I love being able to look back and be reminded again and again of how awesome God is and how he works in ways we can't even imagine. God is so good! And Justin is healing perfectly well (as can be expected). Don't expect too much from me this week! We are doing much snuggling!
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