Last Monday, February 2nd, Gavin and I took Finley to Children's Hospital at Scottish Rite for his Nissen Fundoplication surgery and G-tube placement. In preparation, my parents came down to stay with us for the week so they could care for Shaw while I stayed with Finn in the hospital and Gavin worked (hey-someone's got to pay the bills).
No food after midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning, up at 4:45 to be at the hospital by 6 and in surgery by 7. Once again, Children's Hospital did not disappoint. We were given a room within the surgery center to wait and to receive phone calls from family and updates from the surgeon. We were called hourly and then, at the completion of the surgery, led to his room in the TICU to wait for him to come out of recovery.
My little boy looked so tiny on that giant gurney. He was awake and crying...they had to keep him in recovery longer than normal to watch his breathing. I immediately climbed in to bed with him and cuddled him until he went back to sleep.
Thankfully, he slept most of Monday away. Tuesday, however, was another problem. First off, he had a cold prior to going into surgery. Whenever Finn gets a cold, Finn gets an ear infection. He started tugging at his ears first thing Tuesday morning. He was started on some pedialyte Tuesday afternoon, but immediately started gagging, so it was stopped for another 12 hours. We didn't get a pediatrician in to look at his ears until 11:45 Tuesday night--lo and behold, he had a double ear infection.
Wednesday was the most miserable day I've had in a long time. Finn cried nonstop all day. I sat there with him draped across my chest all day long. He would cry until he exhausted himself, collapse on me and fall asleep for a grand 20 minutes. I guess that was enough for him to regroup and start crying again. During this time, he was allowed 5 mL of formula per hour, increased by 5 mL every four hours. Technically, this kid didn't get to eat more than a drip for 4 days.
On Thursday, I was allowed to give him a bottle. The child who hadn't taken more than 2 ounces for any oral feeding in 5 months chugged 4.5 oz of formula in under 5 minutes. It was an amazing day.
Friday, he continued to eat wonderfully and on Saturday we were allowed to go home.
Keep in mind, during this time, I'm sleeping on a sofa in his hospital room, or squeezing into his crib to comfort him. People are coming in during all hours of the night, machines are beeping, codes are going off in the hallway. Basically, I didn't sleep for 5 days. Don't get me wrong, he's worth it and I wouldn't have dreamed of leaving him, but DAMN. It was one of the harder weeks of my life.
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