Tube is out!

The scope was a success! Dr. Woolley said his airway looked better than he expected it would. Yeah!!! The only swelling was from the breathing tube and that happens to everyone who is intubated. The vocal chords appear to be in the right position to heal properly. They were able to get a larger breathing tube back in than he was expecting so that means the airway is larger than he thought it would be at this point!

They let him recover in the PICU instead of recovery. I got to see him right after and he already looked more like my Bryce than he has in a week. The nurse wanted us to wait in the waiting room until they got him settled again. They turned off the morphine and versed and the paralytic was off before he went down to surgery. We got to go back there after about 20 minutes. He woke up pretty fast and started fighting the restraints (that were on because the tube was still in, and they didn't want him to pull it out). About 15 minutes after we went in there they were ready to extubate him! WOW! I couldn't believe he was ready that quickly. They let him tell them when he was ready, by waking up, moving, and crying. And boy did he let them know! There was no problem with him breathing on his own!! He has already ripped out the two IVs he had, so at 2:00 when we had to leave they were trying to find another vein to put one in. They were going to have to give him something to calm him down some. He was screaming (although no sound was coming out--very hard for me to deal with this) and was holding his breath so his oxygen levels kept going down. No one was concerned with the O2 levels though, they knew it was just because of his fit. They want to wait a while before they let him eat. I know they know what they are doing and they have their reasons for this, but my baby is hungry and milk would make him feel so much better, I just know it! Maybe tonight they said. I HATE having to leave him now. It was hard enough when he was sedated, but now that he is awake and crying, I want to be there with him all the time. I know the nurses are great and will do all they can to keep him calm, but I feel like I could do better!

Dr. Woolley said he can scream and move his head and neck however he wants and it won't hurt the surgery site. I'm so glad to hear this, it was going to be impossible to keep him still and quiet! He said that hopefully we can get a private room tomorrow afternoon. But that all depends on availability (and right now there are none).

All in all today has been great. Very hard for me to deal with seeing him so upset, but seeing him move and seeing his beautiful eyes is amazing. I can't wait until he is acting more like Bryce, but I know that might take a while. Until then I'm going to try and hold it together better than I have been today.