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Hi everybody,
Chris came home on Monday and it is so good to be home and back in our own beds! We are all emotionally and physically exhausted. I must admit, it was the worst week of our lives and I'll never forget it. Chris was in surgery for 8 hours. We said goodbye to him at 7:45 am and didn't get to see him again until 6 pm and we were finally in a room at 8:30 pm. It was a long and very stressful day. I thought about all of you a lot during that day and thinking about all of the younger kids who went through this and did ok gave me strength.
Thankfully, the surgery went very smooth with no spinal cord issues. The highest his pain got was a 7. Most of the time his pain hovered around a 4 or 5. I thought the pain management team did a fantastic job keeping him comfortable. At the beginning of his surgery, they gave him methadone which really helped with his pain. It was only when that began to wear off the next morning that his pain hit a 7. They did increase his morphine at that point which of course, made him nauseous and itchy. More drugs to counteract those side effects. They eventually switched him to Dilaudin (sp?) which is less likely to cause nausea. It did seem to help. He did have a lot of problems with nausea just about the entire time though. We also had some rapid heart rate scares which combined with low oxygen levels and fluid buildup resulted in him needing a CAT scan of his heart and lungs to rule out a pulmonary embolism. As you can all imagine, that was devastating to hear. All I could do was sit by his bed, holding his hand while he slept, crying my eyes out. That was the scariest thing we ever had to go through during the entire week. Thankfully, after many prayers, we got the best news of our lives. The test came back normal. The surgeon apologized for having to put him through that, but he felt that there were too many things pointing in that direction and that we needed to rule it out. I respected his decision. I think that the CAT scan episode was the worst for Chris. They needed to transfer him to a gurney which made him vomit and the bumpy ride was very painful. Then they needed to transfer him again to the table for the scan and again, he was in agony. Combine that with i.v. issues and not enough pain meds., it was horrible for him. My heart was broke in a million pieces at that point.
Naturally, after he went through all of that, he began to release the fluid and his heart rate came down and his oxygen levels came up and the swelling went down. Doesn't it figure? They told me that it takes boys longer than girls to begin to release all of that fluid.
I know that needing a CAT scan is not a typical thing to happen and as I said before, I believe that part was the worst for Chris. Had it not been for all of that, I think that all things considered, it would have been bearable. He was so brave and handled the pain very well during the entire time and I couldn't be prouder of him. This young man of mine is my hero.
Big hugs,
Chris came home on Monday and it is so good to be home and back in our own beds! We are all emotionally and physically exhausted. I must admit, it was the worst week of our lives and I'll never forget it. Chris was in surgery for 8 hours. We said goodbye to him at 7:45 am and didn't get to see him again until 6 pm and we were finally in a room at 8:30 pm. It was a long and very stressful day. I thought about all of you a lot during that day and thinking about all of the younger kids who went through this and did ok gave me strength.
Thankfully, the surgery went very smooth with no spinal cord issues. The highest his pain got was a 7. Most of the time his pain hovered around a 4 or 5. I thought the pain management team did a fantastic job keeping him comfortable. At the beginning of his surgery, they gave him methadone which really helped with his pain. It was only when that began to wear off the next morning that his pain hit a 7. They did increase his morphine at that point which of course, made him nauseous and itchy. More drugs to counteract those side effects. They eventually switched him to Dilaudin (sp?) which is less likely to cause nausea. It did seem to help. He did have a lot of problems with nausea just about the entire time though. We also had some rapid heart rate scares which combined with low oxygen levels and fluid buildup resulted in him needing a CAT scan of his heart and lungs to rule out a pulmonary embolism. As you can all imagine, that was devastating to hear. All I could do was sit by his bed, holding his hand while he slept, crying my eyes out. That was the scariest thing we ever had to go through during the entire week. Thankfully, after many prayers, we got the best news of our lives. The test came back normal. The surgeon apologized for having to put him through that, but he felt that there were too many things pointing in that direction and that we needed to rule it out. I respected his decision. I think that the CAT scan episode was the worst for Chris. They needed to transfer him to a gurney which made him vomit and the bumpy ride was very painful. Then they needed to transfer him again to the table for the scan and again, he was in agony. Combine that with i.v. issues and not enough pain meds., it was horrible for him. My heart was broke in a million pieces at that point.
Naturally, after he went through all of that, he began to release the fluid and his heart rate came down and his oxygen levels came up and the swelling went down. Doesn't it figure? They told me that it takes boys longer than girls to begin to release all of that fluid.
I know that needing a CAT scan is not a typical thing to happen and as I said before, I believe that part was the worst for Chris. Had it not been for all of that, I think that all things considered, it would have been bearable. He was so brave and handled the pain very well during the entire time and I couldn't be prouder of him. This young man of mine is my hero.
Big hugs,
. 
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