UPs n Down's

So we had a challenging afternoon yesterday that is STILL going. Let me explain...
Seeing we were out of our "normal" when it comes to surgeries it was quite a whirlwind to get the staff to understand that Danny is NOT going to fall in ANY of their post surgical standards. After I talked with the surgeon about the procedure I figured it wouldn't be long until I got to see Danny's cheeks again, but this was all going to be new to me as we usually go straight up to the ICU room after surgery and we were going to be discharged the same day. This in itself is AMAZING as he's NEVER had day surgery be SAME DAY :) It was unusually long for them to call me back to see Danny in the OR recovery, as I found out they were waiting to wake up from the anesthetic to get me and then head up to the recovery holding area. That could be VERY LONG time ~ As I explained that the day before I gave him 1 does of Roxicet and didn't see the white of his eyes for almost 6 hours ~ and they just knocked him out for surgery so it wasn't likely they would see him awake. There was also a concern with Danny's low temperature, which was 92.9, so when I did see him there was a MOUND of blankets on him. "Um....whatcha doing? You warm him up to "normal" temps and your going to open a new can a worms. Please take those blankets off." Danny is normally around 94 degrees and he always comes back from the OR cooler. I know it's CRAZY, but this is were he sits...it's Danny's normal! As I was trying to ease the nurses fears of the unusual standards that Danny follows when thankfully the surgeon walked by and helped to reassure her that yes Mom is NOT off her rocker, lol. As the nurse reported off to the nurse that was going to watch him in recovery I over heard that there was 2 meds used in the OR room on Danny...ones that I have repetitively said shouldn't be used. **SIGH** Not to shoot the messenger or anything but the nurse knew I wasn't IMPRESSED. Really people Danny has had over 30 procedures done you'd think they would read up on the previous notes to know what they are dealing with. BUT NO!! Up in the recovery we hung out for a couple hours, chatted with the Palliative doctor and got our discharge papers around noon. Again AMAZING!! He finally did wake up while we were leaving the hospital and he did wonderful on the car ride home. He really did great through the afternoon...you wouldn't have even known he had surgery in the morning ~ WOW! BUT by the evening rolled around it became a different story. Why do the things start to go hay wire in the evening?? He started retching his slow rate of Pedialyte he was getting and the med volume set him over the edge :( By this morning I was hopping to try to keep up with all that he needed. The ventilator over the night was a pain in the @$$, I believe it's due to the heater settings in addition to the tubing size. It was spitting and sputtering water about every hour, which meant I was UP "playing" with the alarms. So I took care of that, luckily I still had the "old" vent here, I hooked it back up and put that back on him. No MORE alarms in the rest of the night....with the vent. He's continued to wretch with his attempts on feeds and meds. He has a fever now which has kicked him seizures in. It's obvious he has another post surgical ileus that we'll have to work him through, I'm hoping we can slowly work his feeds of Pedialyte up that will help his GI tract out, if not that means starting IV fluids. Thankfully he is a GREAT healer, as his incision look phenomenal .... now if we can only get his system to NOT over react when having surgery.
So even though we are home it hasn't been an easy ride, but we are HOME and for that I am thankful. Thankful that I can spend Thanksgiving this year in the comforts of my own home with BOTH my kids. Dan has the turkey soaking to go in the smoker tomorrow and I can't wait. It's going to be a very low key and quiet holiday here at the Osero's as it's just going to be us four, we don't have anyone coming over and we're not traveling. It's going to be GREAT hanging out in our comfies snacking on leftover turkey. Then Bring on the decorations and Christmas music....NO BLACK FRIDAY shopping for us. It's going to be a day full of - holiday cheer and maybe a few Holiday Hot toddies :)
Happy Thanksgiving !