I Wanna Be Sedated

Oh, what a week this has been! 

Monday started at 7:40 with a trip to the endodontist, where I found out that I needed a root canal.  Caleb had graduation practice at 9:00.  Rudy had a doctor appointment at 9:30.  Nola’s language evaluation was at 1:00. 

On Tuesday, the boys went to Silver Dollar City.  Nola and I stayed home because it was so hot and there’s really not much that she can do there besides ride in the stroller.  I didn’t want her to be that hot without any chance to ride things that would help cool her off.  It would’ve just been miserable.  Caleb is big enough this year to ride all but 2 of the big rides.  He didn’t like the Powderkeg, but he did like the Thunderation.  He’s going to be a roller coaster rider, just like his Mama and Daddy.

Wednesday was my root canal day.  I was so nervous, but so ready to get it done and get the weeks of tooth pain over with!  My appointment was at 1:00 and that’s about the last thing I remember from that day.  I was knocked out from that point forward.  I do remember the numbing shot into the hard palate of my mouth that almost made me come out of my skin.  It’s still sore now as I write this 3 days later!  I slept the rest of the day, thanks to some ibuprofen and vicodin.

Thursday, I had my one work obligation of the summer.  The SLPs got together at Reagan for a day of professional development.  It was good to see everyone, but I don’t want to use my brain that much again until August 8th.  (Truth be told, I really don’t want to start using it again then either.)

Friday morning, I had an appointment for a gynecological procedure called Novasure.  (I won’t go into details about why I had it or what it does, but you can click the link if you really want to know.)  I was so nervous about it, but once I got my pre-procedure meds, I was ready to go.  It’s amazing what modern medicine can do.  Since then, I’ve spent the better part of 48 hours sleeping with the help of some pain meds.  The recovery hasn’t been too bad – just some cramping and I’m incredibly tired.  I hope to be back on my feet for most of tomorrow. 

Friday night was Caleb’s preschool graduation, which was a little bit of a stretch for me since I was coming off of sedatives.  It was great, though.  The next post will be all about little man’s cap and gown ceremony!

Surgery Success

Caleb did great in his surgery this morning! We got there at 7:30 and waited just a little while before we were called back for the prep work. It was hard to turn him over to a stranger and know that she was going to put him under. I distracted myself with a Southern Living magazine and Rudy read the paper. It wasn't long before Dr. Lee showed up at the door and called us back to the consult room. He said that Caleb's ears looked perfect and that he had no problem removing the adenoids. The nurse came to get Rudy and I from the waiting room just as Caleb was waking up. I held him for about an hour while he slowly emerged from his anesthesia fog. As he woke up, he started to talk a little more. He seemed to feel a little queasy, but wouldn't take any crackers. We made it home right around 10:00 and I held Caleb while Rudy made us a late breakfast. Caleb wouldn't touch his breakfast, but Rudy and I were starving! After breakfast, I took Caleb into my bed and we watched a little TV and rested while Rudy went to get some groceries. At one point, Caleb said, "Mama I want medicine my mouth." I guessed that his throat must be hurting, so I gave him a dose of the painkiller that the doctor prescribed. Since then, he's been much more like himself. He is singing and playing and watching Sesame Street. The only thing I've been able to get him to eat is ice cream and fruit snacks. I told him to enjoy it now, because tomorrow he's back on "real" food. Speaking of that...I got some wrong information yesterday. This morning, when I asked the doctor about a note for soft foods only at daycare next week, he looked at me like I was crazy. He said that with adenoids, there's no need to restrict his diet. He can have whatever he wants. Our only restriction is to keep him from playing too rough for a few days. I think we can manage!

Prayers, Please - Surgery Tomorrow

Caleb goes in for his new set of ear tubes and an adenoidectomy tomorrow morning. We are supposed to be at the outpatient surgery center at 7:30 and they expect to take him back at 8:00. The surgery should take anywhere from 15-30 minutes. We'll be there for a while afterwards so that they can make sure he comes out of the anesthesia okay and can eat/drink without getting sick. He can't have anything to eat after midnight tonight. Rudy has graciously offered to get up with him at 11:30 tonight to try to get him to drink some milk and eat a snack, then go back to bed. Poor little guy will be so confused. First, we've never woken him up in the middle of the night. Second, he ALWAYS has a cup of milk when he wakes up in the morning. This is without fail. The first thing he usually says when we get him up in the morning is, "I have milk, please?" Tomorrow, he has to not only go without his beloved milk, he can't have anything at all. For the first set of tubes (Feb '07), this was the worst part of all. He was so hungry when he came out of surgery that he practically inhaled his bottle. That made his ears pop, which hurt and made him cry like I've never seen before. It was heartbreaking.

I know this comes as no surprise to anyone. When I called the nurse this morning to get our arrival time, I had questions.

1. What's the recovery?
1 day for the tubes
4-5 days for the adenoidectomy
lots of pain relievers for the first couple of days and then fade those out
soft foods for 5-7 days
"take it easy" (no rough play, etc) for a week
no major travel for 2-3 weeks (Darn, there goes that tropical vacation we had planned)

2. When can he go back to school?
probably Monday, maybe Tuesday

I'm nervous about 2 things. First, my child is going under general anesthesia, which is always scary. He's two and they are going to put him to sleep. I know he will be anxious because we won't be with him and he'll be taken into a very strange place by people he doesn't know. Then they will start poking at him and he'll feel pretty helpless. I'll feel helpless because there's nothing I can do to help him. Second, the fear of the unknown is not my forte'. I want to know what to expect. There's no way to know in this situation. I just have to hope that Caleb will be a trooper and if he's not, I have to be patient until it passes.

I'll try to post something sometime tomorrow, but I don't make any promises. Hopefully, he'll sleep quite a bit to sleep off some of the painful time, but who knows!?! In the meantime, please say a little prayer for Caleb tomorrow morning and for his parents who are just hoping this will help.

Caleb's ENT Visit

Last Tuesday night, Caleb went to bed with a cough. I gave him some cough medicine with codeine. He woke up at 3:00 AM and was ready to play. Apparently, the codeine had worn off. I put him in bed with me and we both dozed off and on - more off than on - until the alarm went off at 5:45. (Rudy always sleeps on the couch on Tuesday nights. Don't ask. It's a long story.)

Last Wednesday, Rudy showed up to get Caleb from school and he was getting in trouble. Ms. Natalie was in the middle of telling Caleb that he needed to go sit on the carpet, because he wasn't being a good listener. Uh-oh. We had a long talk about listening to teachers and Caleb said he would be a big boy on Thursday. We chalked it up to being tired since he had pretty much been up since 3 AM. Wednesday night, we gave him Benadryl to help his cough and help him sleep. He woke up at 4:30. Rudy put him in bed with us and none of us got any sleep worth a flip until the alarm went off.

Thursday, I picked Caleb up from school and his teacher said that he just hadn't been himself. He was still coughing. Ms. Natalie said that she almost called me to come get him, but decided to see if he could make it until I got there. We came home and met Rudy to eat dinner. After dinner, I took Caleb to convenient care. I've said it before, but there is nothing convenient about convenient care! We were there for 2 hours. I learned from my previous experiences and took a movie to entertain Caleb while we waited. We finally got in to see the doctor and found out that he was wheezing, had an ear infection on the left and had fluid in the right ear. We got prescriptions for an inhaler and an antibiotic.

On Friday, I called the ENT's office and made the first appointment I could get. I took Caleb to the ENT this morning at 9:30. Dr. Lee listened to my plea for replacement of Caleb's tubes and agreed that it was the right thing to do. He also suggested removal of his adenoids. I'm all for whatever is going to keep us from being as sick as we (I do mean "we") were all last year.

Caleb's surgery is scheduled for next Friday - October 10th. We're hoping and praying that it will help like it did last time!