Post-Op Day One

He's kinda liking the later start to things.

Surgery yesterday went really well, even if it was longer than I would have liked.  I guess in all honesty, any surgery is longer than I like it.

We got here and hung out for quite a while.  I was right.  By the time they got to the afternoon cases they were running a little behind. Then he decided that he wasn't real interested in an IV, so that took a while too, before they could get underway.  The fact that they had already put him out before attemting the IV didn't seem to matter to him.  He just wasn't into the "sharing" aspect of things.

Just hanging out in pre-op waiting...

Anyway, they cleaned out the bone behind his right ear and then Dr. ENT decided he wanted to try to open up his ear canal as well.  So they rebuilt that.  His canals have been so itty bitty.  Now, even if scar tissue forms, it should be closer to a normal size.  It might even increase his hearing a bit.

Temporary tattoo to make sure they
do the right ear.

He's done really well from a pain standpoint.  He did decide once again to bleed more than expected so we've avoiding the ibuprofen route.  He does have a narcotic written if he needs it, but so far Tylenol seems to be doing the trick.

However, he does want to keep us on our toes.  He's currently asleep (I guess everyone deserves to sleep in the day after surgery) and using about seven liters of oxygen.  When he's awake, it's more like ten.  Yep, can't go home on that.  Our concentrator only dials to ten, and in reality, the output is closer to nine.

Sleepy boy

So we gave him last night to see if it was just left over from surgery and this morning we've started steroids and albuterol treatments to see if we can wean him down to where he belongs.

But at least he doesn't seem to be in pain.  That is huge.

How poor are they that have not patience!

What wound did ever heal but by degrees?

~William Shakespeare, Othello