As mentioned in a previous post, Jonah had his thyroid removed on Tuesday. Prior to his surgery date, Jonah was very excited about his hospital visit. Oddly enough, Jonah has always loved interacting with doctors and nurses. He is very familiar and comfortable with Children's Hospital because he's always treated so nicely. So Jonah had really built up his upcoming visit to the hospital.
While the surgery was very successful, recovery these past 2 days has been hard. Jonah was very uncomfortable after surgery and very groggy and sleepy for a long time after coming out of recovery. He needed oxygen because he wasn't taking good breaths because of being so groggy.
Then Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning, his O2 levels dropped to low 80s. He was put on up to 3-4 liters of oxygen. Then he started throwing up and running a 101.9 fever. Then wheezing, very bad cough, and very labored breathing. Suddenly our hospital room was filling up with on call surgeons, respitory therapy consults, and a portable chest X-ray. Our little guy didn't look good.
Discharge on Wednesday was off the table. We would be staying a 2nd night for sure.
Not the hospital experience any of us were planning on, especially our little eternal optimist.
The doctors feel Jonah didn't clear his lungs good enough post surgery because of being so groggy that junk just sort of settled in the lungs making it hard for him to breath. A fever can be quite common after surgery so at this point, they are not thinking Jonah has pneumonia or some other type of respitory infection.
They felt with better breathing, getting up and walking, and regular albuterol puffs, he would get better!
And better he did! Yesterday Jonah's fever was 99 and then down to normal. They took him off oxygen at 10 am to see what he would do, and he was in the high 90s all day! We took many walks and played in the playroom. He was mostly himself besides tiring kind of easy and rather unsteady walking/moving.
From this Tuesday night
To this Wednesday!
Then during the night Wednesday, Jonah's oxygen levels while sleeping dropped to 86-89. It was decided to put him back on oxygen at 1 liter. Jonah fought this and kept grabbing the O2 out of his nose. Nurses decided to tape it on his face. Jonah got very angry and upset over this. I think it was a combination of not liking the feeling of the O2 line in his nose, the tape on his face, and just overall frustration that nothing about this hospital visit was meeting his expectations.
I watched him laying in his hospital bed, very upset and agitated. Slowly he calmed down on his own. Then he just layed there, and I was thinking he was going to go back to sleep. It was 1am after all 😊 Instead all of a sudden, in his sweet Jonah voice (although a bit hoarse right now), Jonah started "telling"/signing the nurse and I about Two Face from Batman. In Jonah's mind, he felt the tape on his face made him look like Two Face. From being really angry, Jonah now had imagined he could be Two Face and suddenly life was fun and exciting again!
I was so impressed by this little fellow's resiliency! He just doesn't let life get him down. When oxygen was the last thing we wanted him to need, he made it into a game of his favorite super hero.
So yes, when life gives you lemons, make and ENJOY the lemonade!
I love this sweet boy with all my heart!
Just a note to end this post: We got to come home on Thursday! Bye Children's Hospital!
No comments:
Post a Comment