Post-Op: The First Night

I feel like "David after dentist" ... is this real life? It hit me at about 2:30 this morning that I had been awake for 24 hours straight. It also hit me that while my math skills are already pretty disappointing (especially for an Asian ... who teaches math to the next generation), my math skills when I'm tired are embarrassing. So are my memory skills. Thank goodness the nurses and doctors keep track of all the meds going in because I have lost that ability. The coffee and adrenaline had worn off and I was really hoping to get some sleep through the night but it was tough. Around 10:30 after enjoying about 7 ounces of milk, Ryan threw up pretty much everything. We had never seen him throw up the amount that he did and immediately after he just looked so pathetic. Drained and exhausted, he just kept looking at us with his puffy face and sad eyes. Add that to the list of "Things That Make Me Cry" right next to "My Girl" and Sirius Black being killed in book 5. I felt horrible for him and was worried about dehydration and of course the cause of all of this.

The doctors were making their rounds (they travel around in this little pack and all have computers on carts - it's a little funny, especially when you haven't gotten any sleep) and were there at just the right time. They guessed that it was the morphine making him itch (rubbing his eyes non-stop) and maybe also making him throw up. They gave him Zofran for the nausea, then said that for every future morphine dose, they want it to be accompanied with Benadryl. They also started him on Tylenol (administered rectally, poor little fella can't catch a break) and said that if the Zofran and Benadryl don't stop the itching and vomiting, we will have to use something else to manage the pain.

The pain seems to come and go. Sometimes he wakes up and seems perfectly content looking at me while I rub his face and sing to him. Other times he wakes up and is pissed. He throws his legs around and tries to pull out the different cords, then gets further pissed when I tell him that it's not a good idea to pull out different cords that are (literally) stitched into his body.

Right now we are waiting on Dr. Keating to come and check him out and potentially give the go ahead to move out of the PICU and into our own room. It's nice to have such thorough monitoring, but I am definitely ready to be done with the PICU. It was a crazy night with lots of alarms going off and people scurrying around to attend to different kids. I think Ryan took a back seat because he wasn't in immediate danger (understandable) but it was frustrating to be holding my son up after he vomited his own body weight waiting for somebody to help. Other than that, we are hanging in there. All of the nurses here are so kind and caring. I know that when Ryan's in pain, they truly care and want to help him. We definitely made the right choice coming here!

12 hours post-op. There is slight bruising setting in above his right eye, but other than that, he isn't too terribly swollen.