Yesterday was spent as an errand day. With Ronan scheduled for surgery in the morning I wanted to have everything done and ready. I went to a materials display and ordered the kids' school books. Ordering the books from the display meant free shipping and handling. They should arrive within a week and a half and then we can really get going on school.
I also went shopping for more school supplies. Now is the time of year to do this because all the back to school items are on sale. I got 200 Disney character pencils for $2.00. By the time I was finished I knew we had enough supplies to cover the whole year.
4:30 am was wake up time to leave for the hospital. I waited to get Ronan up until the last minute hoping to keep food off of his mind (not an easy thing to do.) We arrived at the hospital and were taken back to the pre-op area right away. I was told due to the fact Ronan is steroid dependent he needed his Potassium levels checked. They were going to try with a heel poke. After performing the heel poke it was determined that a heel poke wouldn't be an accurate method for the test.
They decided it had to be done from the arm. Ronan is an awful stick. Very few nurses can catch his veins. Four people held him down as the lab tech poked around in his arm for a good while. He had become so distraught that his chronic cough flared up excessively. The tech finally gave up. It was about then they came in and told us they didn't need the blood drawn until after he was asleep in the OR. I was a bit frustrated upon hearing that information.
We sat watching cartoons and Ronan fell asleep in my arms. I smoothed back his hair and watched him and prayed things would go well. They put him on a bed while he was still asleep and wheeled him down the hall. I followed a little while since the route to the waiting room matched the surgery area closely. I felt like crying as I saw the two large doors shut with my baby on the other side.
I tried intently to push back the tears and order coffee. I'm not a huge coffee drinker but today I needed it. Ronan has been through literally dozens of procedures and at least 20 where he's been put under but this was different. I've learned to be calm to accept this normal. His procedures have for awhile left me un-phased. Now I found myself sitting in large waiting room filled with other nervous family members and I felt like falling apart. The last time I felt like this was when Ronan had his esophagus surgery at birth.
I played meaningless computer games to pass the three hour wait. I had Physics homework due but mass, velocity and acceleration were not formulating properly in my head. The nurse liason brought me updates every hour. She kept telling me it was calm in his surgery room. After three hours the doctor came and talked to me.
He told me the surgery went really well and Ronan had less blood loss than most of the kids he performs this surgery on. Ronan was having some trouble with apnea and they decided they would take him up to the Pediatric intensive care unit aka PICU. He told me I could head up to see Ronan.
I arrived on the floor before Ronan and saw them wheel him past me as I waited at the reception desk. I was taken to a waiting room while they got him set up. When I was lead back the first thing that struck me was the PICU was eerily reminiscent of the NICU, for obvious reasons. The seen of several doctors and nurses surrounding his crib brought back the memory of first finding out Ronan had Down Syndrome and about all his birth defects. Below is him right after surgery.
He slept most of the day. The surgery and the morphine drip wore him out. My dad picked me up to go to dinner. Inara had been his buddy the entire day. He and my mom took us out to Culvers. Inara enjoyed a grilled cheese, apple sauce, milk and a few sips of my milkshake. We did some quick shopping. My mom got Ronan a different kind of get well present. She bought him a tiny couch. Ronan is into sitting in chairs. He will sit in a chair for extended periods of time. If he sees an empty chair he must sit in it.
The couch is close to the ground and very cushioned. Also it folds out into a little bed. I know he's going to love it when he gets home. I got him a stuffed frog to help his crib look more homey and help him feel more secure. Inara got a new doll. She needed a gift for being such a good girl for Grandpa.
I made it back to the hospital and am spending the night. Ronan has for months refused to where his CPAP and was put on oxygen for this reason. Tonight his nurse, respiratory therapist and myself struggled but succeeded on getting him to sleep with his CPAP on. I am amazed he is sleeping so well but it could just be the epic battle he tried to pick during mask fitting made him too tired to care. Now I just need a respiratory therapist and nurse to come to my house to hold Ronan still every night so I can get his mask in place.
I've been told as long as he behaves he will get to go to the main Peds floor some time tomorrow. He might get to go home as soon as Sunday morning.
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