The Patient

Surgery was a success! M's tonsils & adenoids were removed and the fluid in his ears & chest was drained. It was a short procedure but a long day and there were a few things we just weren't prepared for despite reading up on what to expect.

First, I thought we'd be allowed in the room when they were putting him out. Wrong. The doctor came to talk to us and said the nurse would be coming soon to bring M into the operating room. The doctor excited M with her talk about all the Spiderman & Thomas stickers and he was sad when he left without her. When the nurse came, we walked down the hall to the doors that opened to the operating area and the anaesthesiologist told us they'd put him out using a mask before inserting the IV. He warned that small children were particularly restless when coming out of the anaesthetic but it would only last about 30 minutes to an hour. Two seconds later, the big doors opened up and M walked in with the nurse. He didn't even look back. A little part of me died and I broke down in tears.

Second, the word "restless" doesn't even come close to describing how M was as he came to after surgery. The nurse came to get me just as he started to wake and I came into recovery to find a little boy who was sobbing, screaming, coughing & hacking who was just so completely out of it. I scooped him up and he was flipping between angry rage, sobbing fits & limp exhaustion all while coughing up blood & mucous on my shoulders. Hard.

Third, after what seemed like eternity of the "restless" phase, the nurses decided M needed a bit of morphine because he was just so far gone and he was beyond the point of calming. Just when it seemed like he might be calming down, cue the nurse noticing a pile of blood on the floor behind me. They quickly realized it wasn't from his mouth but rather, his IV came out during his struggles with himself. Six nurses later, the IV was back in and another dose of morphine & Gravol was administered.

Lastly, after all of the above, I honestly didn't expect recovery to be so slow. I wrongly expected our little guy to be full of smiles as he came out of surgery but he wasn't. It took him a good few hours to be at all complacent and even then, everything was a struggle. He felt so horrible that he didn't want a single sip of water or a popsicle and of course, we weren't allowed to leave until he'd started drinking. The nurses had to give him yet another dose of morphine and only then did he turn a corner and want to eat popsicles. 5 or 6 white grape popsicles later, we were given the all clear to head home.

We came home and M was starving. He was begging for Goldfish crackers, which he obviously couldn't have so he instead inhaled 4 scrambled eggs, chocolate pudding, avocado, well cooked orzo cooked in chicken stock with cheese and various other soft nibbles. We had to administer antibiotics and he pitched an epic meltdown because they burned his poor throat. He eventually cried himself into sleep on D's chest and we took him to bed.

All in all, we're on day 3 and things are going well. He has ups & downs and he's definitely still in pain. He's on Tylenol and we've been told days 4 & 5 are worse than the first. Hopefully not! I'm so glad the procedure is done and I'm really hoping we notice a difference in his health over the next few seasons. M is such a little trooper!