Wednesday, March 24, 2010

A Tonsilless Monkey







Yesterday was the big day. My Monkey boy was so scared. It's definately harder with an older kid, who undertands what's going to happen to him. I asked them to give him Versed before taking him and putting the IV in, as his anxiety level was already sky high. So they juiced him, and then wheeled him off. They said they would gas him to sleep before they did the IV, and the Versed was kicked in so he didn't care about the gas mask.

Surgery took 90 minutes, and the ENT came out to tell us about it. We had been on the fence about doing this surgery, as the ENT wasn't sure it was the answer to Monkey's sleep apnea. He said he thought it had about a 50% chance of helping, but the pediatrician agreed that we should try it. It's a good thing we did - his tonsils were very infected and full of yellow pus! He also said they were badly scarred from previous infections. Wow - Monkey has NEVER been diagnosed with tonsilitis! He has never complained about a sore throat, except the one time he had strep throat. My poor bub had such yucky tonsils and we didn't even know! The ENT also said that he had hardly any adnoid tissue, but he went ahead and removed it to be safe.

Hopefully this will help the sleep apnea. If not, we have to do a bronchoscopy to look at his airways. He has very small airways and a history of severe laryngotraceomalacia. CROSS YOUR FINGERS that the tonsillectomy stops the apnea!

He is sitting playing his DS right now. He's had a million popsicles, jello cups, and I made frozen pudding pops. He drank a flat 7-up, but it's hard to get him to drink. I hate to have to scare him into it, but I told him that if he doesn't drink enough and pee enough, we would have to go back for IV hydration. It sounds mean, but otherwise he refuses to drink. Poor Monkey. :(

The pictures below are in order from when we got to the hospital and checked in, to the recovery room, to home. I love the one with the popsicle, he was still so drugged but insisted he was ready for a popsicle. And of course the last one, nothing makes him feel better than snuggling with his Hannah dog. :)

3 comments:

Lacey said...

I'm glad it went well, tell him to watch the mail, the boys are sending him something! When Mondo got his tonsils and adnoids out it was utter hell. We had to go back in the next day because he wouldn't drink or even take a popcicle! He didn't eat food for 2 weeks, he got down to 30lbs and he was 6, he weighed the same as 3 year old Carter! Then on day 8 he hemorraged and we had to call an ambulance. It looked like someone was murdered in my bathroom. Sorry if I scared you!

Kiera said...

Thanks for dropping a note on Little Dude's blog. I wanted to stop over and see how your little guy's surgery went. You got some great pictures of the whole experience. I also love the one of the Popsicle. It is funny how quickly they are ready for those.

I hope that he heals quickly. I will be checking on your blog to see how it is going!

Becky said...

Praying this helps. :)