Long Day!!

So Sunday night at 9:30pm I got a call from Cook’saying that instead of being there at 7:30 a.m. Monday morning, we needed to be there at 6 am.  Thanks for the heads up!  I have not been sleeping well and wound up not going to sleep until like 2:30 a.m.  We got up at 4:30 a.m. so this has been a long day for all of us.

We loaded Joshua up in his jammies and headed for the hospital in the misty rain.  We got there plenty early and walked into the seemingly unoccupied hospital.  At 5:30 in the morning there is not a lot happening at the main entrance to Cook’s.  We wondered around until we found the tiny registration area.  Joshua was confused on why we left so stealthily from the house and now we are wondering around an empty building.  By the time we got upstairs to surgery he was fully awake. 

When I went back with Joshua to start the anesthesia process, they gave him a nasal inhalant and within 60 seconds it was kicking in.  The nurses said it tastes nasty and no one likes it, and true to that, Joshua didn’t like it.  Within about 3-5 minutes he was ready to go back, very loopy on his “pedi-gartia” as the nurse called it.  This wasn’t hard to do like everyone had told me it would be, I think it was harder to seem him come out of it.  It was almost funny watching him get loopy.  He really started chilling in my lap.

There was some concern about Joshua’s congestion.  Congestion can cause issues with the anesthesia like breathing problems.  Sure enough he had to have a breathing treatment while back in surgery.  The ENT came out first within like 10 minutes and let us know he was done.  He is a nice guy.  He said there was fluid building up in Joshua’s ears so we were on the verge of an ear infection.  Joshua’s ears were clear when I took him to his primary pediatrician on Thursday, but we had started the antihistamine / decongestant.  The tubes went fine and we need to go back to the ENT in two weeks. 

Then it seemed like we waited forever for the urologist to come out.  f-o-r-e-v-e-r!  Finally we get called back to a consultation room and Jeff and I are thinking this can’t be good.  Then we sat in the small consultation room waiting on Dr. Pinto, the urologist, for what seemed like f-o-r-e-v-e-r.  He said it all went well and gave us the same spill he gave at the office….no straddling anything (legs or hips or anything), no bath for 2-3 days, the dressing would come off by Wednesday, there will be bleeding and how to stop the bleeding, about the ointment and how to apply….all that sort of things.  He asked if we got it and Jeff said sure since it was written down, but I, being the mom, had it understood.

We went back out to the waiting room to find that we had lost our great seats.  We found seats and settled in.  Jeff and I played the I-spy games in the book that was there.  And after what seemed like f-o-r-e-v-e-r we were called to come back and see Joshua.  Our baby was out, fast asleep.  They had to do a breathing treatment and his face showed the signs of this, they explained.  We started trying to get him to come around, he did long enough to roll over on his belly and went back to sleep.  Several minutes later the anesthesia started really wearing off and he began throwing a temper tantrum, they had advised that this would happen.  He was fussing, screaming, crying and thrashing about.  He was too much for me to hold, he didn’t want anything to do with Jeff and the male nurse even struggled with him.  Eventually he called down a little in my arms.  The doctor gave him some medicine to take him down a notch and ease him out of the anesthesia a little slower.  Joshua finally agreed to have some juice after I put it in his sippy cup and not the hospital one.  We offered him a popcisle and he wanted no part of that.  He slowly began being himself but was very clingy to me.  He was killing my arm and back.  I bet I held him for a good 30+ minutes.  I finally got him to stand on the bed and lean on me….thank goodness.  More time progressed and we eventually were cleared to leave.  I sent Jeff to get the car and pull it around front.  The nurse brought over a red wagon to escort Joshua downstairs in.  We loaded him and our crap up and convoyed down stairs with a boy who was about 7-9 years old.  He rode is a wheelchair and was trying to convince his mother that he needed one full time….oh to be young again.

Jeff pulled the car up and Joshua got excited seeing it.  I carried him out and we were off back to our side of town.  We dropped off his prescription and I waited for it to be done.  Joshua was asleep not long after we got back on 30 to head home.  He slept through the Wal-greens stop.  We went to lunch with Daniel & Christina…that is when Joshua woke up.  He wasn’t really supposed to eat anything solid, but he seen my beans and rice and wanted some, so I let him eat.  He ate and did fine, he didn’t have any problems.  He drank more juice with lunch. 

After we got home, I checked out the work Dr. Pinto had done.  It looked like a mess.  I gave a clean fresh diaper and applied the ointment and rocked him down to a nap.  When he woke up it was more fussing.  I went back to check the diaper again.  It still wasn’t wet, but was bloody.  The dressing they had on came off and I panicked.  But underneath, he looked normal….like a boy should.  Wow, it was great.  I called the doctor after the panicking about the dressing and the fact that he had yet to have a wet diaper.  They said to give it more time and call back if at bedtime he hadn’t had one.  Well, as usual, I panicked too soon…he has had three wet diapers since then. 

He ate a pretty good snack and then dinner with lots of water and/or juice in between.  We gave him more pain medicine and put him down for bed early.  He will be staying home tomorrow from school. 

I did get to sleep for about 45 minutes on the couch earlier and it was great, but not enough.  I am heading to bed.  Will update tomorrow if time allows.