We got the call just after 11am that the OR was booked for after 4pm that day but that he was on standby basically. The Pedatrics team told me to bring Lochlan in around 3:30pm and to not feed him after 12noon. I had my concerns because I know how these things can go...especially if he wasn't booked in for surgery just on call.
I didn't want my monkey to not be able to eat for that long. He usually eats between 2 and 3 hours in the afternoon. But he had to have an empty stomach for 4 hours prior to surgery.
We waited. And we waited. He finally got some sugar water between 5 and 6pm after he got his IV in. His nurse was going to put it in his head but I asked if that really was a good idea if he was getting eye surgery -- maneuvering his head etc...so they agreed and decided to try his foot. Didn't go so well. Tried his other foot...that didn't work either. So they went for his his again. He has an incredible vein his head that just screams to have an IV in it! I can understand why she wanted to use it in the first place.
IV was in place. All that was left to do was wait. Lochlan was amazing as usual. He handled not having any food incredibly well. I was expecting him to just lose it at some point, but other than a few small bouts of crying, he was really good.
He went in for surgery around 7pm...7 hours after having breastmilk. Poor lil monkey.
The anesthesiologist was amazing and so very nice. Rob and I waited in the OR waiting room and just before 9pm Dr. Gale came out and said how well the procedure went. He ended up not doing laser. I can't remember what the procedure was called but it's what they used to do all the time. I guess the laser wasn't working or something. Anyway, the good thing is it's done and over with and we can breathe a big sigh of relief. They didn't have to tube him as they say. (intubate --- where they put a tube down his throat to help him breathe while he's under) Another big sigh there.
He will go back on Monday to have his eye rechecked to make sure everything is good and regressing as it should now. Please pray for that! If not, they can do another surgery where they inject a medicine in the eye. How fun does that sound!?
Loch was moved back up to peds in the PCCU for close monitoring. Lucky for us, Christine from the NICU was his nurse! I really liked her from before when she had been his nurse.
Shortly after we got up there, I nursed him. He was slightly awake and so he fed around 10pm. He was a starvin marvin. But he was also beat muskeet so he didn't go very long. Then he nursed again at midnight and then slept until 4am!! Only because Christine had to wake us both up since he was going past 4 hours. So needless to say, he had a great night.
I forgot to mention that Lochlan's eye looked like he'd been in a bar fight. And it wasn't helping that he was mainly turned towards that eye because the IV was on the opposite side of his head. So that was puffing it up even more.
Still cute as ever though.
Just after 8am, we were moved to a regular room on the pedatrics floor. It was basically a sit and wait to be discharged based on his O2 requirements. They wanted to release him on the same settings he came in on. (1/16th of a litre) During sugery and for a few hours after because of the deeper sedation, he was on 1 litre of oxygen. I was a bit nervous it would take a while to get there.
Finally between 4pm and 5pm, he was back to his baseline of 1/16th. He remained sat'ing well and we were able to be discharged!
We made a pitstop at the NICU for a quick visit since we hadn't said our goodbyes and thankyous when Lochlan was officially discharged from the hospital to come home on August 16th. We were able to visit with 3 of his nurses: Mary Anne, Cathy, and Lois. I plan on bringing him back in a week or so to see a couple of the other nurses I really liked.
So that's where things are at. He needs to have eye ointment put on his eye twice a day and as mentioned before, he'll go back on Monday for a follow up appointment.
Tomorrow, he had his head ultrasound to check for development and any bleeds. I'm praying everything will be normal. The last time he'd had his head ultrasound was after his last eye surgery. It was normal then. So I hope nothing has changed. I say normal but they said they didn't comment on anything so I hope that means it was normal. That the blood had reabsorbed.
Oh, I forgot to mention. Lochlan was weighed on Tuesday afternoon. He's 6 pounds and 12 ounces!! He gained almost 2 pounds since coming home almost a month ago! He's 19 inches long too. Grow baby grow!
Here are a bunch of pics from the last few weeks. Enjoy! And thank you for your continued support and prayers.
*hugs*
Jenn
Post op.
Wow, wow , wow, absolutely wonderful, wishes of good health, good fortune and much love, to you all!!!
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