Kicking some reherniation butt

Samuel is recovering well from his surgery. On Monday, he went full force on the Tube Elimination Program. He started by peeing around his Foley catheter so that they had to remove it. Later that day, they pulled out his chest tube and the NG tube to drain his stomach. Then the nurse spotted signs that his epidural was not working properly. Anesthesia was consulted and out came the epidural catheter. The only thing left at that point were his two IVs, which went interstitial later that evening and had to be removed.

A little more than 24 hours after surgery, Samuel was tube-free - down to only his plain old nasal cannula and the leads to monitor respiration rate, heart rate and oxygen saturation. He'd been discharged from ICU and was settled in with his familiar, loving folks on Unit 2.

This wasn't all intended. There is no actual Tube Elimination Program at the hospital (in case this wasn't clear) other than what our tricky baby determines for himself. He was supposed to keep the epidural for another day or so since it was providing excellent pain relief without having him snowed. Instead, he was put on IV morphine and, when his IVs had to be pulled as well, on oral morphine. Tuesday involved some juggling to find that place where there is enough medication to manage pain but not so much that he can't wake and eat.

Because he is eating. Already. He'd been soooo fussy and irritable after surgery and everyone who saw him agreed it was hunger. So on Monday morning, less than 18 hours post-op, we gave him a small amount in a bottle. He sucked it back in seconds. I had to use my adult strength to wrestle the bottle from his baby grasp since we wanted to go easy on his belly for those first few feeds. And then he slept, a peaceful sleep rather than a "since you nasty people won't feed me, I guess I will sleep" sleep (which was usually a 20 minute nap followed by more hunger crying).

A snoozin' and a healin'.
(And a wearin' socks on my hands because I am lacerating my nose with my fingernails.)

Sam is almost up to full feeds by bottle, no tube feeds. His oxygen is at a half litre and we will wean when it seems like he's strong enough. He really doesn't need to work even a little harder to breathe right now. One of his cultures from the ER came back positive for endorhinocrapiolasomething. Yea, I didn't totally get the exact medical term but the translation is that he has a cold. So eating and sleeping is quite enough. His next hurdle is pooping. That can't be comfortable on those wee wonky intestines. His doctor is super pleased with him and excitedly told us about the big, beautiful lung that she saw on the "defect" side of his chest. Glorious news.

As of this morning, Samuel is off of the morphine and on a schedule of Tylenol and ibuprophen to manage pain. He is comfortable - sleeping, eating, waking. Last night, Auntie Lori came to hang out with him so that I could be home with the big boys and Sam gave her one of his famous smiles. Our boy is coming back.

Auntie Lori and Seth came to visit the day before we ended up in hospital.
Sam: "This is boring. I think I will blow a hole in my diaphragm patch."
Auntie Lori: "Look how sweet Sam is in this racoon hat I brought him!"
Seth: "Back off, Racoon Hat Boy. This is MY mom."

The big boys have had a bit of an odd reaction to all of this. It's kind of like they've needed to pretend there was no Sam; no matter how many times we told them that Sam was in the hospital, they didn't seem to understand, didn't seem to want to. Jakey keeps looking in his crib and asking where he is. Zachary has wanted to come home for lunch when he knows that I can't bring him home because I am at the hospital through the day. Daniel will hear a bit of what we tell him about Sam and then change the subject - and right now, it's not easy to break through his haze of soccer passion.

It makes sense to me that they are reacting this way. I have found this hospitalization difficult too. For many months, Sam was our baby who lived at the hospital. Now he is a full-on part of our family. He's supposed to be here at home with us. Having him in hospital again feels like going backwards, even though I rationally know that it's not. If Sam can keep up with his recovery, he could be home by the weekend and we will have our family back under one roof again.

This means that Sam should be home for his first Halloween. Nana and Boppa took the big boys to the Halloween store on Sunday. They picked out their own costumes and even some pirate stuff for their dad. Jakey tried to dress me in various things that are, um, incongruent with my age and body image. No skanky Bat Girl outfit for me! I will dress up as a tired old mommy this year. Should be big fun.

Jacob gets Sam into the Halloween spirit.

Oh, and I also found something to gross out my boys! Daniel overheard me telling Chris that Sam's Foley catheter was out and he asked what that was. I told him. He exclaimed, "he had a tube in his PENIS?!" and then Chris and I watched as the heebee jeebees raged through his 9 year old body. My kids spend considerable time grossing out their mother with their boy "humour" and so I am allowed to delight in having a bit of ammunition of my own. A little bonus from our Sam's journey.