Brody had surgery on Tuesday the 6th of this month to redo a previous surgery. He had a Nissen fundoplication surgery when he was about 8 months old because he had such severe reflux that he was constantly in the hospital with pneumonia. While doing this surgery they also repaired a paraesophageal hiatal hernia that he had that also could have been contributing to his reflux. Some how the hernia came back and it was making it very hard for Brody to eat so they decided to fix the hernia and redo the nissan. For some reason I was thinking that this surgery was going to be fast and easy- I have no idea where I got that idea and how I didn't remember what it was like last time. I thought that this surgery would only last like 30 minutes, again I have no idea what I was thinking. The surgery actually lasted 3 and a half hours. I was also thinking that we would at the longest be there just one night- which was actually 4 nights.
Brody surgery was at 9am which meant that we had to check in at 7am. Brody wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything during that time and he did really well. We ended up not even going back into pre-surgery until ten minutes before his surgery was supposed to start. Turns out that Dr. Curnow (the surgeon) had a surgery scheduled at 8 that he didn't know about, but lucky for us it was a really quick one. Right after we got to our little waiting room in pre-surgery we met all of the staff that was going to be back with our little man. Different people came in; nurses, anesthesiologist, and the surgeon and went over all the different type of paperwork and information about everything involved in the surgery. They anesthesiologists asked if we thought brody would do okay being carried back by a nurse or if he needed to be sedated before going back, me and Raul both said he would be just fine with the nurse.We were in pre-surgery for about an hour and then they came and carried Brody away. He was so happy to be with the nurse and walking around, it was so sweet but so sad because he had no idea what really was going on.
Surgery started at 10:30ish and then we just played the waiting game. We both get so nervous during surgery because of what happened the first time he ever had surgery. When a Doctor comes out and tells you that you need to follow him to a different room because he needs to talk to you, well that is something that you never forget. It makes me so nervous that something might go wrong with this one too. Finally at about 1:30 the front desk lady in the waiting room told us that Dr. Curnow was finishing up and would be out to talk to us shortly. About 15 minutes later Dr. Curnow came out and brought some pictures of the surgery and explained that it went really well and Brody did amazing. He explained the pictures to us, which still I don't really understand. He said that this surgery was a lot rougher then the other one because they had to do more; cut through the scar tissue that was there, another incision, permanent titanium staples, some knew meshing for the hernia to hopefully make it scar better so he won't get another one. They also cut a vein but they sewed it up fast so he only lost about 6 tablespoons of blood. With Brody being older then he was when they first did it also makes the surgery harder, it's just harder on his body and takes more time to heal. Then Dr. Curnow left so we had to wait for Brody to start waking up so we could go back and see him.
About 15 after 2 I went to the desk and asked if they knew how long it would be until we would be able to go back and see Brody and she was like, "oh right now! The light just lit up for him so we can take you back now!"
We followed them back and right as we were walking in they were calling the desk and saying "Brody's parents can come back, he's awake now."
I saw my little pumpkin in his room, a nurse was holding him and saying "look Brody who is that? Do you see your mom and Dad?"
He looked so sad.. he was whimpering and just looked plain miserable.
The nurses helped me get all situated with Brody so I could hold him with all the things connected to him. He looked so pale and couldn't get comfortable. When he was crying/whimpering you could tell that he had a sore throat from the tube they put down his throat. His voice was so horse. They gave him pain some more pain meds after him crying for about 15 minutes and trying to get comfortable. We were waiting down there for tylenol because Dr. Curnow wanted it given to him right after he woke up and before we went to the peds unit. We waited in that room for an hour and half and still the pharmacy hadn't sent the tylenol. It was so frustrating. They decided to take us up to his room in the peds because we would have more room and they thought it might help Brody to feel better being out of that room. The nurse that took us up to his room was not happy with the nurse that was over Brody in post surgery. She was saying that she had no idea why it took the other nurse so long to order the tylenol prescription for Brody when Dr. Curnow wanted it right away and some other stuff.
When we got to the peds unit she told the nurses at the desk that this was Brody and was asking what room it was. Come to find out they hadn't even gotten the room ready so we had to stand in the hallway and wait for that to be done. The nurse that brought us up was very angry about that, while we were waiting she got the tylenol and gave it to Brody through his IV. They got the room done and we went and sat down in there. Brody was not allowed to have anything, fluids or food, for a few days because it could make him sick. That wasn't much of a problem the first day because Brody was so out of it and in pain when he was awake. The first night Brody cried for a few hours straight in so much pain, his voice was so horse and his eyes swollen. Raul and I were so frustrated because the nurses weren't listening to anything we were saying. When one of the times Raul took Brody and tried calming him down I went to the bathroom because I couldn't hold back my tears and I needed to control my emotions that way I wouldn't upset Brody.
After about 3 hours of Brody crying Raul went to get stuff from the car, also to help him cool down from being so frustrated with the nurses. In the elevator on the way to the main floor he saw Brody's cardiologist, Dr Walker. He said "hey doctor walker" and she said "hi, how are you? How is Brody?" Raul told her that Brody just had surgery and she asked how he was doing and then she put her hand up to tell him to wait because she could tell he was upset and the elevator was full. When the elevator stopped she took him to a waiting room and asked if everything was okay and that's when Raul told her what was going on with Brody. He told her he was frustrated with the nurses and that Brody was in so much pain and no one was listening. She told him that she was going up there to find out who the charge nurse was and get things fixed because Brody shouldn't be in pain.
I was standing up with Brody trying to get him some what comfortable in my arms and then Raul walks in and he explained that he ran into Dr. Walker and told me about what they talked about. She told him when they got up onto the pediatric floor to go into the room with me and Brody and that she would find the charge nurse and get everything fixed. She came into the room about 5 minutes later with the charger nurse and the charge nurse asked if we were okay and said that she was so sorry and there is no excuse for the nurses to ignore what was going on or to be to "busy" for a patient because that is there job.
The charge nurse said that they were going to give Brody enough medicine until he was comfortable and if they gave him all the medicine they could should would call the surgeon to see what else to do. They gave him basically all the medicine they could which took about 3 more hours, because they have to wait a bit for each different dose to kick in, for Brody to calm down. Dr. Walker stayed that WHOLE time. I was SO so so grateful to her, and I don't think she will ever understand how much that meant to us. She told me that she knew god put her and Raul in that elevator at the same time for a reason and her prayers were answered when Brody was able to calm down. She is seriously the sweetest lady I have ever met. The funny thing is that Brody started to play, talk, watch TV and just be happy when the medicine finally worked. The reason that is funny is because usually 1/5 of that dose given to other kids knocks them out for a while and Brody seemed like he was given a dose of energy.
About every two hours they were giving Brody that strong pain medicine because he would start crying right before they could give it to him- along with the tylenol and ibeuprofen. That next day during the afternoon my mom came to be with Brody and we went to the cafeteria to get some food. She decided to try and let him walk because he loves to just walk around everywhere. When we came up he was freaking out. She said that she took him out in the hallway and tried to put him down but he didn't want down he just wanted her to hold him and walk. When they came back to the room he started to freak out, I guess because he was just so sick of being there. He was acting almost like he couldn't stand anything, everything was bothering him. To an extreme point that he was throwing his body everywhere. Let me tell you something that little man is very strong- it took 4 nurses my mother and I to hold him down. He seemed to be wanting to crawl out of his skin. The nurses called his surgeon, who put them on speaker phone because he was doing surgery, he asked if that was Brody he could here screaming in the background- and it was all though where they called from was WAY down the hall from his room- and he said to give him Benadryl and Valium. The nurses told me that when a patient is on such a strong pain medication it can causes them to freak out(severe anxiety) because pain medicines like that are usually only given one time to get things under control. Benadryl helps to reverse the symptoms- or more like suppress them until they have run their course and are out of your system. Valium is an anti-psychotic drug that basically makes the patient completely numb(as in just lying there doing nothing) and out of it. The nurse said that we should try the benadryl and if it doesn't work she would give him the valium. THANKFULLY the benadryl worked for him and calmed him down. We decided to try to go without the strong pain medicine(i think it was morphine) and just stick with the tylenol and ibeuprofen unless he needed it.
After that he was completely fine and didn't need any medicine. The rest of the hospital stay we were just trying to keep Brody occupied in that little room, we didn't have anymore exciting freakouts or anything like that. That just about sums up the latest surgery- I will post pictures soon!
