Surgery #15

Anthony has this thing called Mill Duty now at work.  It means he is the mill manager on the weekends a few times a year (a few times has been more like every other month and a few holidays).  One of his holidays this year is New Years.  Not a big deal until we scheduled Bryce's surgery for New Years Eve :(  Anthony had to be in Savannah while we were in Birmingham.  Thankfully my dad was able to stay at the lake with CeCe and my mom could come with us to the hospital.  We had to check in at 6:30am that morning so the three of us tiptoed out of the lakehouse at 4:45 to make it on time.  Bryce slept the whole way except to wake up and chug some apple juice before his 6:00am cutoff.  The Children's hospital has opened a new building since 2008 when we were last there and it is huge and very nice!  We had no problems checking in and went right back to our room.

 

Bryce doing some math workbooks while waiting.  Only 5 minutes later than the time he was scheduled they came to get him.  WOW!  That never happens.  We had planned to be waiting most of the day since he was squeezed in on the schedule.  He was SO BRAVE again and smiled and waved when the lady came to take him back.  My stomach was in knots but seeing him so brave helped me so much!

 

 

20 minutes later Dr. Woolley came in, showed us the pictures and said "his airway looks perfect".  WHAT???  No scarring.  No leftover hemangioma.  NOTHING.  WOOHOO!!!! Cappy gave him high fives and wanted to dance around the room.  I was in shock and just stared at the picture of this large perfect airway!  Then he told us he showed the pictures of his vocal chords to his partner and they agreed that the scarring there is what is causing his voice projection to be so weak.  He has only been using the lower part of his vocal chords to speak since the upper part has so much scarring.  We are going to start speech therapy at his school to try and get him to use the upper portion of the vocal chords, but he will more than likely need another surgery this summer to fix the scarring.  It should be a fairly easy surgery with only a one night stay in the hospital afterwards.  The spasmodic croup he's been getting is more than likely caused by allergies so we need to visit with the pediatrician and either try new allergy medications, see an allergy specialist, or get a standing order for prednisone for the next few years until he grows out of it.  We will start with our pediatrician and go from there. 

 

Here is my brave boy after recovery.  They don't let the parents in recovery anymore (not sure if this has always been standard with older kids or is new for everyone at the new hospital).  I was very upset that I couldn't be back there when he woke up, but I shouldn't have been, he did great!  They called to tell me he was awake and eating a popsicle and doing great.  Then they wheeled him in and he and the guy driving him were laughing together! 

Our nurse kept stressing how his balance would be off and that he might be very nauseous after anesthesia.  Thankfully after all these surgeries he's never had bad effects from anesthesia.  She asked him if he wanted a wagon to ride in to the car and he looked at her like she was crazy!  He stood up, put his pants and shoes on and walked out of the room!  By the time we made it to the elevators he was skipping and then sat down and ate a whole bag of chips and drank a coke (which was a super special treat for him!) On the way home he begged for Chick-fil-A, ate every bite and was playing football all afternoon once we got back to the lake.  Never needed any pain medicine at all.  AMAZING child I have, AMAZING.  One sad thing....we were in the bathroom right after surgery and he said "I don't feel like my voice is any louder".  :(  He thought he was going to wake up with a louder voice. 

 

I called Anthony from the hospital to tell him the great news and then he said he had news too.....his dad had just tested positive for the flu and Anthony was sick with fever and coughs too.  He had a drs. appt. that afternon but we all knew he had the flu too.  Kiki had been very sick with terrible coughs but no fever so they don't think she had the flu.  I called our pediatrician to ask them if we should be on tamiflu too.  The nurses first question was are either of them high risk?  I said "one had surgery this morning on his airway, has had croup 3 times and bronchitis once since Nov.6th, the other had pneumonia in early December".  She paused and said, "so yes, they are both high risk then, I feel sure Dr. Stone will want them on tamilflu as soon as you can get it, and you need some too Mom since everyone else will be on it, Mom's don't have time or luxury to be sick."  $400 later we are all taking our tamiflu, but thankfully the kids and I have avoided feeling bad and Anthony is finally feeling better.  He's been quarantined to our room since we've been home and we are glad to have him back playing with us now! 

We were both saying to ourselves on Monday, man, it can't get much worse than this!  Don't ever think that because yes it can.  Tuesday night is when Kiki had her stroke.  She is gaining more and more strength every day and we've done facetime with her a few times.  We can't wait to see her walking around her house again sometime soon!!  We love you Kiki!!!