Today we went in for Cooper’s surgery. We did not have to be there until 9:00 which meant he couldn’t eat or drink anything before then. I was really nervous about that, because the first thing he does when he wakes up in the morning is to drink a cup of milk.
We kept him up late hoping to get some food in him late and also hoping he would sleep in later. We did not know that our night would be awful. He woke up around 3:00 and did not go back to sleep until after 5:00. He only wanted me and cried unless I was holding his hand. We immediately knew that his ears were bothering him again. :( But thankfully knew that the end was in sight! He had started pulling on his ears a couple days ago, so I was just waiting for him to start running a fever. Thankfully, last night was the first night he had major problems. I was interested in hearing what the doctor had to say after to surgery.
So back to this morning, since we had such a bad night, he ended up sleeping till a little after 8:00 which is great for him. Matt and I were already up and ready, so we headed out at about 8:15. We were secretly hoping that if we got there early, we would be taken back early. Cooper asked repeatedly for a drink and kept trying to look in my bag for his cup. I did have his cup, because they told us to bring one, so I was having to hide it from him. He was not a happy camper when we got there. We did remember to bring our laptop and watched Netflix shows while we waited to be called back. That helped a lot!
We got called back about 9:20. They took to Pre-Op and that was kind of hard. He knew something was happening, so he wasn’t happy. We were in there a while just waiting for him to be taken back. Basically just trying to keep him entertained as best as we could.
They wheeled him out and he looked so small sitting on the hospital bed. He just stared at us wondering what was going on. Of course I lost it and started crying! :) So I had to calm down before going back into the waiting room. Once we were in the waiting room, time went really fast which I was grateful for. One of our elders was there to keep us company, and it only took about 20 minutes.
We then went back to talk to the surgeon. Dr. Blythe said that his ears were completely full of fluid, which explains our awful night! He drained his ears and put the tubes in. He also took his adenoids out and cauterized his nose for easy breathing. He said that Cooper did great and that the surgery went well.
We went back to the waiting room for less than 5 minutes before getting to see Cooper. I wish I had been better prepared for how Cooper would be when waking up because I totally lost it when I saw him. He was screaming and thrashing around. The nurse kept having to untangle his IV line because he was twisting so much. The screaming really got to me though. We tried holding him and it was literally all we could do to keep him from hurting himself. Matt even had a hard time holding on to him. Then after 10 minutes of that, Cooper finally chose me and wouldn’t let Matt touch him or talk to him. Cooper gets that way when he really doesn’t feel good which I understand, but it is very hard on me! Especially since I’m huge pregnant. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to hold him the whole time, but I kept switching positions. Even though he was better with me, the crying didn’t stop. Just the thrashing stopped. We were in the recovery room for about an hour. He really just wanted to get out of there.
We were so glad to be leaving. He cried the whole way home, but once we got home, and I was able to hold him again, he calmed down. He fell asleep on me about 30 minutes after we got home, but only slept for an hour. He was much happier when he woke up and even ate some ice cream and applesauce.
He has been grouchy all afternoon, but I finally got him down for another nap at 5:00. Hopefully he will want to go to bed at a decent hour tonight since he is sleeping tonight, but we will fight that battle when it comes. He is snoring like a lumberjack in his bed, which is totally normal for an adenoidectomy. His voice is also very different. It is very nasally and we are having a hard time understanding what he is saying. Hopefully that will wear off quickly because he is getting frustrated that we don’t understand him.
I’m so thankful that we were able to get this surgery done before Levi came. I know it is a very very minor surgery compared to what many families are going through, but it is still hard on this momma! :) Thank you to everyone who prayed for us. It really means a lot to me that we have so many who care even about this tiny surgery.
I will keep you updated on the progress!