the zipper

I think the surprising thing for folks is how quickly they seem to 'return to normal' as far as bouncing back after surgery. Here it is in pictures...
Before surgery he had to wait like four hours before he was called in, to roll down the hall to his cotton candy flavored anesthesia...he was literally bouncing off the walls! No ADHD meds combined w/anxiety set this kid in overdrive!

He finally stopped his giggles and got a little irritable with lack of drink/food. He announced to everyone that passed his room, "I'm starving!!!" One lady walked in about to make sure he had all that he needed (to be nice) and he asked if she had food or could she get him some...when she said pleasantly said, "No, I can't offer you food, drink or a way out, sorry!" he decided to say in the nicest way possible, "Take a hike!" (I am not kidding) Luckily she thought it was funny and gave him a little stuffed animal and she did just that.

Here he is on his way back in...poor baby. He is full of all kinds of medication!! He tends to get very sick after his surgeries so we opted to use all medication possible PLUS acupuncture. Never would I thought we'd need that, it was just sugar/water but some people claim it helps and guess what...he got nauseous a couple of times but he never threw up! YAY! It's tough when your kids is bent over w/spit dripping from his mouth, throwing up while exclaiming in between "I'm so hungry". So luckily he avoided all of that this time.

Blood Disorder
For those on Facebook, I mentioned a blood disease. In our family, we have a strong presence of something called Angioedema. It doesn't affect me or my personal family (that we know of) since usually the kids will show signs/symptoms by Kindergarten. But to be on the safe side, we wanted to go ahead and check Gage. His surgeon offered to check while he prepped him for surgery after sedation so I said "Great". This way we'll know for sure. This can be a very dangerous, even fatal disease. Not for the blood disorder itself, but the symptoms! Males can usually take an oral/daily steroid to ward of these unpredictable swellings. Those affected can have almost any part of the body swell w/very little (if any) warning, this includes the throat and organs, hands, digestive tract, anything. My sister has it (bad) and sees a specialist in B'ham for her condition and is followed closely. Her daughter is about to have her blood tested for the condition so this is why I thought of having him checked. We'll find out when we see our doc Tues. for post op (he also gets activated that day).

As you can see, very early the next morning, he's playing, waiting on his turn to be released. The resident who changed out his bandage noted what a great speech reader he was. We got home about noon yesterday and he's still needing stronger meds than the average ibuprofen that he normally takes. I think now that he's older, more aware of pain, etc. he's requiring a little something stronger.

He's doing great though, I hope I can get him to relax at some point today, watch a little tv. I know he's got lots to do after we do a little school work...he's ready to work on his trucks he bought at the thrift store. I'll get to write a few articles (I hope) while he does that. I'm so glad this one is behind us and he'll be able to hear better soon. He has the N5 now. For those keeping score, this is his 4th device... he's had one on each side removed/replaced. He lost one to infection and one to improper functioning. He had one aborted attempt (his first ci surgery when he was almost 2) and one removal surgery to take out infected ci, so that brings his ci surgeries to 6. He said the worse part was smelling the oxygen mask after the cotton candy faded, the ringing in his ears and the stinging after meds wear off. During the day I have more control and can sort of prevent the pain but I set an alarm for the midnight meds and last night he was waiting on me in pain (just a couple of minutes). He's fast asleep now.

Brook is doing better w/her strep. She should wake fine, take her oral meds and off to school she goes. Again I apologize to the teachers who are calling on me to sub, luckily most of you love us and understand when I remind you why I can't for a couple of weeks. He is a trooper. He is amazing. He is a happy little boy!

This child probably feels like he has a zipper on each side of his head...

Keep in mind this is not your typical ci surgery...he had a keloid scar removed in front of his ear, it could possibly come back but maybe not...they went in the same scar(s) as before and it went quite well...his heart rate kept dropping a bit while he recovered in his room while sleeping so they gave him extra fluids and he was fine.

Today we shall begin school work (spread throughout the day, not to overwhelm) We may begin with a couple of worksheets (simple) and do something fun like make his environmental poster for keeping our county clean & healthy for Science.
(to be continued)