Back Home From The Hospital

The boys slept much better last night. Thus morning we changed Jack's pain medicine, and that helped him eat, drink and keep everything down today. By 11am Jack had met his drinking goal and we started the discharge process. We all took a good nap this afternoon and they are doing well.

Another Night In The Hospital

So we didn't get to go home today...

Jack slept great last night, but was upset most of the morning. He needs to drink 4.5oz over 3 hours to go home, and got to about 2oz. He ate but didn't want to drink much at all today. Needed medicine for nausea and to calm him down to rest.

Luke was upset and didn't sleep well at all last night. By 4am he got some stronger pain medicine and got a little sleep. At 9am his pulse/ox level started dropping too low and has needed oxygen since then.

Both have been on strong pain medicine and resting most of the day. We will stay tonight and see how they do tomorrow.

Surgery Day

Yesterday was a very stressful day. I had a great weekend serving at church, which means five hours Saturday and five hours Sunday to mix the sound for worship team rehearsals and the three weekend services. Monday was the day to do laundry, clean the kitchen, go grocery shopping and get everything packed and ready for the overnight hospital trip while the boys were at school.

One if the surgery nurses usually calls sometime between 9-11am to ask a bunch of health/medicine/sickness questions and let me know what time we need to be there the next day. Waited, waited and waited for the call... I started calling at noon and left a message. A surgery nurse called back, went over questions and let me know that Jack would probably be cancelled since he was still on antibiotics for strep. That put me in a terrible mood for the rest of the day. The nurse would check with anesthesia and call me back, but that took almost four hours and the answer did not change. I explained to the nurse that Jack has had strep 10 times in the last 11 months, this time he has not really been sick (just threw up once at school so we went to the dr to be safe), and that he probably would be no healthier than now on whatever date they could reschedule for. She understood, gave me the time to check in, and let me know that it would be up to our ENT Dr & anesthesia to decide if Jack would be OK for surgery.

We picked up the boys from school, had dinner with family, prayed a lot and finished packing for the hospital stay.

This morning was great. We arrived at the hospital, saw the doctors, and everyone agreed with us that Jack would be fine. Thanks so much to Mimi for coming and helping with the boys before surgery, in recovery, and giving us a lunch break after we moved upstairs to our room. More thanks to our family, pastors and friends who prayed for and with us today and a few that came to visit and check on the boys.

Surgery was great! Both had tonsils and adenoids removed, Luke had one ear tube replaced, and Jack's tubes were removed because his ears looked great. Both also had blood taken - Luke to recheck his liver functions and Jack to do some allergy testing. They did well in recovery, and by the time we moved upstairs to our room, both were very calm, relaxed and quiet. Jack has a popsicle and some juice very quickly and their nurses are amazed at how well they are doing!

We should be headed home tomorrow and the rest of the week may not be as easy, but we're very thankful that the boys did so well and we were able to get both of them done together. God is good!

Surgery for the boys next week

Since last fall, at least every month Jack and Luke have had ear infections or strep. This spring both had tubes put in their ears, and that has helped stop the ear infections. The strep has continued, though. Last month was Jack's follow-up appointment with the ENT doctor to check his ears and tubes. We brought Luke along, explained the continued problem with strep, and he easily agreed that it's time to take their tonsils and adenoids out.

Last week Luke had an appointment with the GI doctor to talk about his feeds, medicines, and plans to start the process of changing how he's fed to eventually get him eating by mouth. Luke was on the third day of a runny nose/congestion, so we had the doctor take a look at his ears. Luke's left tube was gone and there was some infection. So, Luke will also get a tube replaced while he's asleep for the surgery.

Jack's stomach had been bothering him earlier this week and on Wednesday threw up all over the place and had to be picked up early from school. Took him to the doctor yesterday and it's strep again! Hopefully the last time for a while... While Jack is in surgery, he'll have blood drawn to do some allergy testing. He has stomach issues every couple of weeks that we think is unrelated to his throat and ear infections. Always different foods, days, times - nothing we've been able to figure out on our own, so maybe the allergy test will give us an answer.

The boys will have surgery together (well, one right after the other) on Tuesday the 14th at AR Children's Hospital. Won't know the time until Monday, but will probably be in the morning. They will be admitted and we will all stay overnight on Tuesday. If all goes well, we should be home by Wednesday night. It may be a long and tiring week, but we'd rather do both at the same time and only have to go through this once. Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. We'll post updates next week.