This surgery better be worth it. Garrett is miserable. I can tentatively call it successful because they were able to get both the tonsils and adenoids without anything too drastic, like a trach. But we won't know for several more weeks, when the swelling has gone down and he can have another sleep study. The real test will come this winter. Hopefully he won't spend the entirety of it sick and tired.
As expected, it was a difficult intubation. I would suggest to any parents of children with compromised airways to push for the anesthesiologists to use the Fiberoptic Endotracheal Intubation. Really push. I think this could have prevented the majority of his pain and swelling, leading to his inability to breath and even-more-severe sleep apnea.
Poor Garrett is just not good with "procedures". He fights everything. It's hard to judge his pain because he reacts to getting his temperature taken the very same way he reacts to getting an I.V. And he is so strong, it makes every fight a traumatic ordeal that doesn't end until every trace of the offense is removed. He wont drink out of the bottle that has a little sticky residue on the side from the hospital name tag. He was very cooperative and held perfectly still while the nurse unwrapped his makeshift cast that kept him from destroying his I.V., but as soon as she put on the little tiny band-aid he went ballistic. He wanted no reminders! He wanted everything gone gone gone.
A warning to parents whose children might need this operation; the nights are horrible, truly frightening. They say that a person will die if they go more than 3 days without sleep. Well, I guess 20 second naps are good enough to keep you alive. For a full week, 7 long days and nights, there was simply no way for him to sleep and breath at the same time. The swelling in his throat was so bad that the instant his muscles would relax in slumber, his airway would become completely shut off. On his tummy, on his side, sitting upright; there was no way to potition him or hold him that gave him any relief. We even ended up back in the ER after just a day of being home. I wanted to just stay at the hospital. Watching your not yet 2 year old pass out from exhaustion then just stop breathing over and over and over again, day after day, shouldn't be acceptable. But they kept telling me his oxygen levels were ok and this was normal, there wasn't anything left to do but weather it out.
Now, at one week exactly, almost to the hour, Garrett is starting to do SO much better. He is finally off the strong stuff, eating and drinking normally, his breath stopped smelling like a dumpster of dead frogs in the hot sun, and his fever broke. The apnea is about the same as it was before the surgery, he still saws some logs but over all his sleep is pretty sound. Now, Ben and I just need to catch up on our own Z's and Garrett needs to gain back all the weight he lost, then things will be better than ever. They better be.
