Surgery

Silly boy.  I guess he decided that he was going
to have plenty of time to sleep today, because
last night, he decided to party.  He was up from
1-4 a.m.  So even before they took him back,
he decided to go to sleep.  Maybe he was hoping
to make it easy on the anesthesiologist.

11:00 a.m.  Aaron is having surgery now. We got here in good time and they were running on schedule. They took him back just a few minutes after 9:00 and the room was scheduled for two hours. 


The plan was to get everything else done and then do his hearing test. I'm guessing there was a lot of junk in his ears because shortly after starting, Dr M. called audiology and told them he didn't think we'd get accurate results and recommended putting it off six weeks to let his ears heal up. 

Right now it's 11:15, a touch longer than the original surgery was supposed to go. They cancelled the ABR which was supposed to take 45 minutes to an hour. The desk called back to get an update for me half an hour ago and they were almost done, had finished all but the cyst. So now I'm sitting here, still waiting, and wondering what it is that's taking so long. I know it's probably nothing, but I've always had an overactive imagination. Still, surgery time should have been cut in half and it's been longer instead. 

About the time I finished writing this, Dr. M. came in to talk to me.  The rest of this I'm writing up at home.

At 11:30 Dr M. came and spoke to me.  When he finished, he said that Aaron was waking up and they'd call me back in a little while.  As he walked out, the phone rang and it was for me, yea!!  One of the perks of having a trach and vent is that he doesn't have to be able to breathe on his own, or have his tube removed.  In fact, please DON'T remove the tube!

Anyway, ear tubes were removed, ears washed out really good, and new tubes placed.  It's still really hard to see back in there because his ear canals are so tiny, but they couldn't see any nasties back there.  His adenoids were HUGE, so we're hoping that in removing them, his ear infections will start to subside. This poor kid gets one every four to six weeks.  Yeah, not fun.

What we thought was a cyst turned out to be a lymph node.  And it was getting bigger.  Dr. M. said that it looked innocent, or benign, but because it's come out of his body, it's being sent to pathology.  It is of concern.  Lymph nodes aren't supposed to do that.  But it's probably (hopefully!) nothing.  And now it's in a jar instead of in him, much safer that way in any case.  We should have news, if there is any, within a few days.

Now we're home, he's resting, and he's starting to feel better.  He's having some pain, but it seems well-controlled with Tylenol (gotta love modern pain meds, right?).  He was pretty sad this afternoon, but he's getting happier.  We'll keep a close eye on him over the next several days, just to make sure he doesn't have any post-op bleeding.  But all in all, a successful day.  And I know it was due in large part to the many, many prayers offered for him.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.  

It is not a case we are treating; it is a living, palpitating, alas, too often suffering fellow creature. ~John Brown