Jackson's first (and hopefully last!) surgery!

This particular story began a couple of years ago when I happened to notice that Jack's tonsils looked swollen. Well, more than swollen - they looked huge! So I immediately called his pediatrician (despite the fact that he was behaving totally normal and had no other symptoms of illness) to set up an appointment because I assumed he had some sort of infection. His check-up revealed, however, that he was perfectly healthy and that he just had a rather large set of tonsils which should get smaller as he grew.

Fast-forward to this past March. I had taken the boys to a routine dentist appointment with our new dentist who commented that Jack's tonsils were the largest he'd ever seen. I agreed and told him that I'd been told by his pediatrician and previous dentist that he should grow into them and not to worry about it at this point. He then suggested that I bring the matter up at Jack's next well-check just as a reminder to his pediatrician since, in his opinion, they could develop into a matter of concern. Especially since I told him that Jack was an extremely loud snorer and most-of-the-time mouth breather.

Jack's next appointment was his 5 year well-check in June. I brought up the issue of the tonsils again and this time his pediatrician agreed that it didn't appear as if they'd shrunk at all and that it was probably time for him to be seen by an ENT doctor. So the referral was made and two weeks later we met Dr. Levine (a.k.a. Dr. Josh). He seemed to think that everything would be fine when I told him it was purely a matter Jack snoring and open-mouth breathing and nothing whatsoever to do with recurrent infections (he's never had tonsilitis or strep throat)... That is, until he saw THESE bad boys:

I think the first thing he said after taking a peak into Jack's mouth was, "WHOA!" And coming from a guy who's done over a thousand pediatric tonsillectomy's that meant a little something, lol. He then explained that graded on a size scale of 1-4, Jackson's tonsils were easily a size-4 and a size-3 (almost 4). This meant that they had to come out for a number or reasons (including how they would affect the shaping of his palate, airway obstruction, probability of developing sleep apnea, etc.). Dr. Josh also suspected that with tonsils this size his adenoids were most likely enlarged as well, though (due to their placement) he wouldn't be able to get a good look at them until the surgery. He recommended having the tonsils (and possibly adenoids) removed within the next couple of months and since I couldn't imagine trying to care for a post-op kid AND be nursing a newborn I decided to schedule the surgery as soon as possible. (And what was Jack's take on all of this? Well, let's just say he was more than willing to show off his "ginormous" tonsils to ANYONE who wanted to take a peek. And definitely more than happy to trade them for two weeks of all the popsicles he could handle. :)

The Big Day!

July 22, 2010

Jack started the day off opening a fun care-package from Grandma Wilde.

Jack was only too happy to share his goodies with a jealous Eddie-O. He got a new movie, bubbles, paints, and all kinds of things to help keep him entertained during his recovery. :)

We dropped off Eddie and Norah at Ms. Tiffany's house (THANK YOU!) and arrived at the surgery center at 9 am sharp. Jack appeared to be anything but nervous. :)

We were finally called back to the pre-op room around 9:30 am where we met the team who would be in on Jack's surgery. They were all wonderful and commented (on more than one occasion) about how much our little man likes to talk. :) We even had a few other nurse visitors who came to meet him after hearing him jabbering away from the hall. While the nurses, anesthesiologist, and doctor recapped the procedure for us, the Child Care Advocate (Sarah) sat with Jackson and told him all about his surgery (which we had already gone over with him several times so he was more than prepared), gave him stickers, colored on his sheets with him, and pretty much made him fall head-over-heals in love with her. :)

This is Jackson about 5 minutes after drinking his 'silly juice' - which they gave to him once everything had been explained. I'm not sure what it was exactly, but it certainly worked quickly!

Can you see where he was able to color on his sheets? :) He drew a 'chicken' mom (not sure what brought that on? Though he did remark that it had a huge tummy, "like Mommy," lol) and his name, among other things.

One of the fun things Sarah did with Jack was to decorate (with stickers) the mask that they used to administer the medicine that would help sedate him while they put in his I.V. (I think it was laughing gas? I kind of wish I could have seen that part! :)

The surgery lasted about an hour and then I was allowed to go back and lay with him while he woke up from the anesthesia. This was the part that Eddie had had a horrible time with so I was pretty anxious to see how Jack would handle it. As he started to wake the only thing he kept saying was, "I just want to wake up." I felt so helpless! So I just snuggled him and talked to him and he very slowly started to come around. Sarah came to see him and brought a Spongebob movie for him to watch on her laptop which ended up being a lifesaver! One - because she had told him pre-op that she would come visit him when he was done and once he'd finally woken up enough from his medication one of the first things he asked was, "Where's my girl?" And two - the movie totally distracted him from everything else and by the time it was over he'd eaten TWO orange popsicles and had had 1 1/2 small cans of Sprite.

Here she is... The girl of his dreams (with 'Goobie' - the stuffed caterpillar she gave him just before his surgery). :) I just had to get a picture of Jackson with Sarah. This is the 'beautiful girl' he proposed to while in the pre-op room (and it was pre-medication of any kind, too!). After talking about everything from bugs to snakes to trampolines, Jack had blurted out, "Hey, let's get married!" And she laughed and said, "You don't want to marry me, I'll be too old!" And he said, "But you can wait for me to get bigger." We all laughed and I told him that he needed to be more romantic than that when proposing. Then he said to her, "You know why I love you? Because you have a pretty face. And I love girls who have a pretty face." Seriously, is this kid going to be a heart-breaker or what?! :) The anesthesiologist (another 'pretty face' who fell victim to Jack's charms) came to check on Jack a few hours post-op and told us that they all had crushes on him :). Meanwhile, Dr. Josh (who has a 5 year-old daughter) said, "Keep him away from my daughter! She's not dating until she's 30!"

Finally home! Eddie has been more than happy to share in the bountiful harvest of popsicles, Sprite, Gatorade, pudding, jello, and other 'soft' treats that currently fill our freezer and refrigerator.

Jack's recovery from his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (yep, they ended up coming out, too!) has been going as expected. We were told to expect him to experience quite a bit of pain for several days and that it would need to get worse before it gets better. Even despite his medications he is still very, very sore and we are looking forward to the coming week when his discomfort level should peak and then start getting much better. On his medication he's just not our crazy Jack and we can't wait to have him back!

Thank you to EVERYONE who has helped watch our other kiddos, brought food, and come to visit Jack! We are so grateful for our amazing friends. :)