Surgery

Isaac's surgery went well. Recovery - not so great!! It wasn't horrible - just long and hard. Surgery took about 30 minutes and then it was another 30+ minutes before we went back to see him in recovery. He was obviously in considerable pain. He started getting pretty restless so the nurse asked if he wanted to sit in my lap. She started giving him morphine in his IV, but had a hard time managing the pain. Isaac did great in communicating that he was in pain ( the 1-10 scale does not work very well on a 4 year old!!). When we asked where it hurt he always pointed to the exact spot they did the surgery.

He kept burping so I kept asking him if his stomach was bothering him. He would tell me no, but we would soon find out that it probably was. His burping turned into him throwing up orange popsicle and a little bit of apple juice - on Mommy's white shirt!! A small price to pay when your child just had surgery and is in severe pain!!! We figured out that since they put a breathing tube down his throat during the surgery, he had probably gotten air in his stomach (hence the burping and throwing up).

After he threw up and got the maximum amount of morphine he was allowed, he calmed down. The pain seemed to be under control and we got him to hold down apple juice and a little popsicle. They moved him from recovery to 2nd recovery (which is just a private room without constant nurse supervision). After some more apple juice and about an hour they took his IV out and unhooked all of his wires and let him go home.

They put some light dressing on his hand and told us to keep his hand dry and clean. By clean - that means don't let him get ANY dirt in it. He is suppose to keep the dressing on for a week and a half until we have our followup visit. Let me remind you - HE IS A 4 YEAR OLD BOY!! They don't stay clean easily!!! That means he is home from school for the next 2 weeks. If his hand gets infected it would be VERY BAD!! To be safe we are keeping him home. His arm also has to be in a sling for the next couple of weeks as well. On top of all of that - they put his IV in his foot. They apparantly tried his ankle first and failed, so it ended up on the top of his foot. So, he finally put a shoe on this evening and wore it for a while and then complained that his foot was hurting. I guess he will have one hand in a sling and one foot without a shoe!! His foot is pretty purple already!

It will be a LONG couple of weeks of recovery with limited activity which will be hard for a 4 year old for sure!!