Physically fine, emotionally exhausted!
We are 4 days post-op and, physically, everything has gone well so far! But, emotionally, this round has been very different – for mom and the LO alike.
It started once she put the hospital gown on. She didn’t like that it was yellow because the bigger kids had blue, her favorite color. She didn’t make much of a fuss about it, thankfully, but I believe having a gown on at all made her begin to understand that this wasn’t a regular doctor’s appointment.
Once they called us in to the holding area, she was absorbed in her Paw Patrol videos so she wasn’t too concerned with what was happening. We spoke with her doctor as well as the anesthesia team and then it was time for her to go with everybody. Last time they bribed her with Paw Patrol on a big screen and she hopped right into their arms, this time she resisted. Not too much, but you could tell that she was not happy to be leaving mom and dad. In fact, after surgery the anesthesiologist suggested that if we need to do this a 4th time, we may consider a program they offer where one parent is allowed to bring the child to the operating room and stay until they are asleep in order to comfort the child. I will be looking into this soon as there is a required info session that I don’t want to be scrambling for at the last minute.
When speaking with the anesthesiologist, I brought up the “crazy baby” state our LO woke up in after her last surgery. She explained to me that young children are prone to waking up in a state of delirium, and the way she described it (complicated by stitches in her eyes I’m sure) was bang on! She said that since she was now aware, she would use a different method of sedation that would allow her to sleep longer, hopefully waking up past the state of confusion and in less of a frightened manner. I was hopeful that it would avoid a repeat of the last experience and it did not disappoint! The LO woke up with a flutter of her eyes and looked right up at us.
We were not in recovery for long. She refused to eat her popsicle, drink her juice/water or eat any ice chips but was generally doing well so we were discharged. We got her dressed, removed the IV’s that were really bothering her and we started to go. That’s when she decided to scream for her popsicle at the top of her lungs. Had she just taken it 30min prior we’d have been home already! Ms. Stubborn!
Recovery has been uneventful. None of the possible side effects we were warned of, a normal diet, not significant amounts of pain or anything I feared. The worst problem, if you can call it that, is that she doesn’t want us putting her antibiotic drops in her ears because she doesn’t understand why she needs them. She associates them with pain, and she has no pain! She even went to daycare for a few hours yesterday and today.
I think the biggest hurdles now are 1) keeping her healthy as long as possible to allow things to heal properly, 2) our follow up with ophthalmology next week which is making me very nervous and 3) facing another potential surgery depending on the success of this last one with ENT and the opinion of the ophthalmologist next week.
As our LO gets older, she is becoming more aware of what is going on around her and she isn’t as accepting of the process.
And, I don’t blame her.
It started once she put the hospital gown on. She didn’t like that it was yellow because the bigger kids had blue, her favorite color. She didn’t make much of a fuss about it, thankfully, but I believe having a gown on at all made her begin to understand that this wasn’t a regular doctor’s appointment.
Once they called us in to the holding area, she was absorbed in her Paw Patrol videos so she wasn’t too concerned with what was happening. We spoke with her doctor as well as the anesthesia team and then it was time for her to go with everybody. Last time they bribed her with Paw Patrol on a big screen and she hopped right into their arms, this time she resisted. Not too much, but you could tell that she was not happy to be leaving mom and dad. In fact, after surgery the anesthesiologist suggested that if we need to do this a 4th time, we may consider a program they offer where one parent is allowed to bring the child to the operating room and stay until they are asleep in order to comfort the child. I will be looking into this soon as there is a required info session that I don’t want to be scrambling for at the last minute.
When speaking with the anesthesiologist, I brought up the “crazy baby” state our LO woke up in after her last surgery. She explained to me that young children are prone to waking up in a state of delirium, and the way she described it (complicated by stitches in her eyes I’m sure) was bang on! She said that since she was now aware, she would use a different method of sedation that would allow her to sleep longer, hopefully waking up past the state of confusion and in less of a frightened manner. I was hopeful that it would avoid a repeat of the last experience and it did not disappoint! The LO woke up with a flutter of her eyes and looked right up at us.
We were not in recovery for long. She refused to eat her popsicle, drink her juice/water or eat any ice chips but was generally doing well so we were discharged. We got her dressed, removed the IV’s that were really bothering her and we started to go. That’s when she decided to scream for her popsicle at the top of her lungs. Had she just taken it 30min prior we’d have been home already! Ms. Stubborn!
Recovery has been uneventful. None of the possible side effects we were warned of, a normal diet, not significant amounts of pain or anything I feared. The worst problem, if you can call it that, is that she doesn’t want us putting her antibiotic drops in her ears because she doesn’t understand why she needs them. She associates them with pain, and she has no pain! She even went to daycare for a few hours yesterday and today.
I think the biggest hurdles now are 1) keeping her healthy as long as possible to allow things to heal properly, 2) our follow up with ophthalmology next week which is making me very nervous and 3) facing another potential surgery depending on the success of this last one with ENT and the opinion of the ophthalmologist next week.
As our LO gets older, she is becoming more aware of what is going on around her and she isn’t as accepting of the process.
And, I don’t blame her.
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