Disclaimer: Some of this will be long and boring to those who may not care. I know it is somewhat a long post. I wanted to put details to remember the night for ourselves and also for those who might be reading this blog who may have a child go through the same thing and wonder what it could be like. Thanks for understanding.
When we got to the room Anderson was transported to a nice big bed.
His first nurse, Michael, checked him out and hooked him up to the machines in the room that would moniter his vitals and also to the I.V. that would keep him hydrated and help him take some of his meds.
We sat there with him for a while. He was just laying in bed so miserable. It was strange to see him so still, normally he is very wiggly and active. Grandma and Grandpa Toner and Meme Johnson all came and tried to make him feel better. I popped in a thomas the train dvd to help distract him from the pain and the cast and the cords.
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| hooking up Anderson to the machines |
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| recovering |
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| lots of love! |
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| blood pressure |
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| not feeling very good. |
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| A little thomas might help. |
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| We love you buddy! |
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| very snuggly and tired |
We went to get dinner at the Ronald McDonald house and Andy's parents watched Anderson. He got very agitated and wanted to get out of bed, so our nurse Michael suggested a wagon ride. They stuffed the wagon full of pillows and blankets and plopped Anderson in on top. Grandpa pulled the wagon and Grandma pulled the I.V. stand. They met us in the hallway coming back to the room. We all headed over to the craft area.
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| On a wagon ride to get out of bed for a while. |
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| Making a pillow case in the craft time |
They drove him in the wagon and his I.V. In the waiting room area they had a craft where the kids could draw with markers on a pillow case.
After a while Anderson was getting tired so we went back to our room.
It was getting late so the grandparents all decided to leave and go home.
After they left Andy and I and Anderson hung out for a while but everyone was getting sleepy.
Anderson had a moment of pain that I hope I never have to see again. He was almost screaming and grabbing at his skin graft incision area. I was trying to calm him down but I couldn't. He wanted all of the cords off of his body and he wanted "cast off" he was crying and crying like I have never seen him. Thankfully we called for the nurse, who came in and gave him another dose of morphin and he calmed right down. I think that it had worn all the way off and they were not going to give him more if the pain didn't come back.
At around 9 pm Andy went to his own room in the Ronald McDonald house, with the plan that we would switch off at 1 am
Anderson got slightly itchy and got beydril for itches. He almost had to have another catheter because they did a scan of his bladder and it was very full. Anderson had 2 diaper changes but there was not much pee in them. I was feeding Anderson some apple sauce and said that I would try to get Anderson to pee. I told him that he should go potty in his diaper. He grunted and worked really hard at it just like he was pooping. When Michel came and check He had a super wet diaper. Yay! I have never bee so excited for him to pee before. (I only tell this story because this was something I had not thought of after surgery.)
He had some more pain med.s and check at 12:00
I tried to help Anderson get to sleep but with all the different cords hooked up to monitor him he kept making one of them go off and the alarm would go off right as he was drifting to sleep. I even got in his bed with him and tried to hold him. He fell asleep for a few minutes but then the alam went off again he woke him up in to a frenzy and pulled at all his cords. I was wrestling him trying not to let him take them off, but then I just let him take the oxygen one off of his foot. I decided that if it was a big deal then the nurses could yell at me, but He was not getting any sleep.
One of the best things to help me at this moment was a smart nurse who suggested I push the couch bed right next to Anderson's hospital bed. This was great. I was able to snuggle him while each of us had our own space. This was one of the main reasons we ended up falling asleep.
The nurses did come in and it was time for a shift change. The new nurse ( I loved her! but I don't remember her name.) let us take off the rest of the lead cords and all that was left was his I.V. Finally with the machines and Thomas dvd turned off, we fell asleep.
I brought Anderson's sound machine and night light from home and it was a big help drowning out the typical noses of the hospital that may have otherwise woke Anderson up.
Andy came to check on us and switch with me at 1:00 but we did not switch because Anderson was finally asleep and I was too, so we decided he should come back at 3:00
We slept most of that time but Anderson woke up and needed pain meds.
Andy came back at 3 and we were still sleeping so I sent him back to his room to sleep more. Anderson and I both woke up at 5:15 and Anderson was crying hard and asked for daddy (awww!) So I called up Andy and he came right over. We got him more medicine, then went on a wagon ride because he was so restless.
We came back and he slept from 6ish to 7:30 and then he was whimpering in his sleep so I wanted to get him his tylenol so I asked the nurse to come and give it to him and then he woke up for good.
All in all the night did not go as bad as I thought it might. Sure there were some hard moments when Anderson would be in pain or was wild because of the cords and having to be still. But they were few and far between. We had wonderful nurses who helped us at every problem. And it was great to have access to the Ronald McDonald house. That helped us all get more rest then I expected.
