He really did well almost the whole time at the hospital. He was very polite with the nurse - answering questions, and not complaining when she had to "hug is arm" (take BP) and do things like that. Once you get checked in you're put into a room to wait until surgery time. The nurse is in for a bit at first, and then there's also a child specialist of some sorts (don't remember her exact title) that comes to talk, but there's still a fair bit of time to kill before surgery. They have a very nice play area that we couldn't go to because Caleb had a runny nose. :( But, they brought us some toys and we watched Curious George. At one point Caleb was getting a bit antsy and starting to act up, but overall he did great. Thankfully at that point they came with some paper, crayons, and stickers, so that occupied him until it was time to go.
The nurse taking Caleb's blood pressure. She also had bubbles to help distract him.
Miss Mimi talking to Caleb about his mask (he's hanging onto it). She had him put chapstick on the inside to help it smell good, and we practiced taking deep breaths in it. She also had an id bracelet just like Caleb's to put on Sadie. They kinda know what they're doing over there. :)
One downside of the whole thing, only ONE parent can go with the child when they are being put under the anesthesia. Really?! How are we supposed to choose? Somehow Mike was nice enough to let me go, even though I know he really would have liked to be there. A couple of the nurses weren't sure if a pregnant woman could go back there, but they checked with the anesthesiologist and he said it wasn't a problem. Caleb enjoyed the ride down the hall on his bed. And then he did great going to sleep. They said kids usually resist it, but he didn't fight it at all. Looked a little unsure when we were in the room and he had to lay down on the operating table (and insisted on still hanging onto his box of crayons), but he let them hold his mask on and was even saying something to me at first, but then his eyes rolled back and he was out. :)
Ready to go!
The doctor said it could take an hour to an hour and a half, so Mike & I went upstairs to grab lunch and bring it back to the waiting room. After finishing our lunch we were just settling in for the wait when they told us he was done already and the doctor would give us his report. The doctor basically told us that everything went great, and then we had to wait a bit more for Caleb to wake up. That didn't take as long as they told us either. And Caleb woke up like such a sweetheart. We'd heard from various people that children often come out of anesthesia agitated and upset - the nurse even said 99% of kids are that way. But, he was very calm and sweet. Gave each of us a kiss. :) Within a few minutes he was awake enough to go back to our other room. After a bit they let him have some juice - it was hard to keep him from guzzling it, but after the first couple times he didn't put up a fuss. He spent awhile waking up more and once they saw he was doing well and tolerating the juice we got ready to go home. When we left I rode in the wheelchair with him, that worked out nice for me!
Still groggy. And just like his mother, doesn't want anyone to really touch him - very hard for Mike. :) Hard to see in the pic, but Sadie got a mask to wear just like the doctors!
On the ride home.
We were hoping Caleb would sleep some when we got home, but no luck. He stayed quiet on the couch for a bit, but then had enough of that. He started getting very cranky and irritable. Poor kid really didn't feel good and didn't even know what he wanted most of the time, it was very hard to pacify him. He did eat some and handled that fine. He worked himself up into a pretty good fit when we were putting his pj's on for bed (took both Mike and I to pretty much wrestle him), and he cried/screamed for awhile. Finally got him to calm down and then fall asleep. Phew. He slept good all night, other than when I went to check on him at 1am he had a dirty diaper and was soaked thanks to everything we let him drink earlier so he needed a full clothing change. He went back to sleep real good though, unlike myself. :)
Caleb woke up a little early today, and definitely didn't seem to be feeling bad at all. Didn't even give him any medicine all day other than this evening he started acting like he was hurting. Great to see he's recovering so well, but apparently one day of having things different made him think he could really test the limits today. He was extra temperamental and was really pushing the normal boundaries today. Was very helpful to have my mom around for awhile this morning. After naptime today we thought we were going to have a repeat of yesterday evening, but he calmed down after awhile. It's been a little hard keeping him from activities that would not be good for him right now, but hopefully he gets used to it.
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