Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Surgery Week: Wednesday

The big surgery day was Wednesday, June 27. Simon had been hooked up to the ICP monitor for 24 hours, and the readings looked very good. The number was not supposed to go above 20 on a regular basis. It was normal for the number to spike when he coughed or sneezed or laid down, but in general the number was supposed to stay lower. Simon's consistently stayed lower throughout the day, even when he was jumping around in excitement during the air hockey match with his cousin. It spiked a bit when he was in his bed and slumped over a little, but again, that was normal. So, we were looking at the "simpler" surgery being done.
The nurse came in the room at 6 a.m. to make sure that I was getting up and ready, as Simon was to be wheeled down at 6:30 a.m. I was already up and quickly had a protein bar, got dressed, and brushed my teeth. I called Chris to wake him up, too.
We were ready to go, but transport was a little late. We ended up walking down a little after 7 a.m. Pre-op was easier because Simon had been in the hospital all night. So, we had not needed to drive over, check in, and so on. He already had IVs and a hospital gown, making it that much simpler. The surgeons, anesthesia team, and nurses trickled in. We waited only a little while before it was game time.
They wheeled him back around 7:45 a.m. We went upstairs to get our stuff out of the hospital room, because Simon was heading to the PICU after the surgery. Once we were all packed up, we went to the waiting room. Around 9 a.m., we got a call from the OR saying that they started at 8:30 a.m. and that everything was going well. We hung out with my dad, my sister, and my brother until our pager went off at 10 a.m. Simon was done! We went to the little room where the surgeons come to talk to you, and we heard nothing but good news.
The surgery went very well, and they did not even need the donated blood. Some bone was harvested off the back of Simon's skull and then placed over the openings by his temples. Titanium plates were put in as well. Simon was to spend the night in the PICU and possibly even go home the next evening. What a relief!
We had to wait a little while longer before we could actually go back to see him, because they were still waking him up. When we got back there, Simon's oxygen levels were a little low. He was waking up but still dozing off a bit. When he would doze off, the oxygen would be around 85 or 87 when they needed it to be in the 90's. Before we got there, it had been in the low 80's.
Once those numbers were in the low 90's, we packed up and headed to the PICU. Simon was super thirsty and got a sip of water before having the ride in his chariot to a new floor.
After settling in, we got everybody up there in small groups so that they could see Simon. One of our cousins showed up bearing gifts, and by that time Chris's dad and his wife had arrived as well. Simon had lots of love in that room!
Simon's chief complaint after fully waking up was the catheter. The nurse quickly got approval and removed that thing. For the rest of the day, Simon complained that it hurt to use the bathroom, but he was fine by the following day. Little boy was a bit grumpy, but that was to be expected.


He promptly puked up the sip of water that he had post-op, and that started the dance of figuring out a good balance of medication. They didn't want to do the morphine right away because of Simon's oxygen levels. When they did do the morphine, he proceeded to puke up anything he had consumed. So, they tried Tylenol. That wasn't enough for the pain, so we were back to the morphine and puke. What fun!
By that evening, the pain was under control; but bedtime presented its own challenges. As soon as Simon would drift off to sleep, he would hold his breath. Then, the machine would start a loud, obnoxious beeping. The nurse couldn't continue with morphine, because then Simon's brain would not have kicked in to remind him to breathe again. Simon did manage to eventually fall asleep and stay asleep, but the machine's beeping got even worse. Now, he was sound asleep and registering sleep apnea. I climbed into bed with him to keep reminding him to breathe, and eventually the beeping stopped. Once Simon crossed the threshold into deep sleep, his breathing was fine. As for pain medicine, we didn't worry about it while Simon was sleeping. I think that part of the breath holding was because of the pain, though. What could we do? We just waited it out.

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