No More Projectile!

Kyle had the fundoplication surgery on Wednesday (6/13/07) afternoon. His surgery started at around 1:30 and lasted about two hours so he was just getting to recovery when I got there from school. Perfect timing!

When they brought him up to his room (3NW), he was still a little groggy from the anesthesia and definitely a little grumpy but a little Tylenol did the trick to make him more comfortable. One of his NICU "girlfriends" (a nurse named Kelly) came to see him while we were there and mentioned that she had recently found out that her own mother had had fundoplication as a baby and has not had any serious problems caused by it. It was good to hear of someone with long-term experience of the procedure since most of what I found was about children under 5 years old.

Thursday night, after work, Chris went to seek Kyle and he said that Kyle was a little more cheerful, smiling now and then with only a bit of residual grumpiness. Friday afternoon, I went to see him and he was back to his smiley self. He had a couple of fussy moments when he would move certain ways but overall, he was smiling up a storm! Saturday afternoon, I went to see him again (bringing along a new friend I had met earlier that day) and the nurses were saying how he was almost up to where he needed to be for discharge. I didn't get my hopes up though because they normally don't discharge him on weekend days.

Yesterday morning (6/17/07), though, we got a call from All Children's saying that we could pick him up! What a wonderful Father's Day gift it was for Chris, too. We got our baby boy back home.

It's a little strange, now that Kyle can't throw up. We're used to jumping to action whenever he gives the little warning cough, ready with a towel or two to sop up the mess. Now, he can sleep through the night without us bothering him by changing his clothes and blankets. I guess we'll be going through a lot less laundry now that he can't throw up. He still hasn't quite figured out what's going on, it seems. He still gags like he's trying really hard to throw up and then looks downright annoyed that he can't.

Home... for a limited time

Friday afternoon, I called the hospital as I was leaving work at 3:30pm to see if Kyle could be picked up yet. They told me they were still waiting on some final paperwork and weren't sure if it would be done before 6pm, so I headed home. Sure enough, five minutes after I walked in the door, I got a call saying that Kyle was ready for pick-up so I had to turn right back around.

It was a close call at one point. I thought they weren't going to let me have him after all because one of his prescriptions had expired since he was admitted and the All Children's pharmacy was closed. I had to call around to the pharmacies and make sure they could fill his prescription (which is a special compound) before I could bring him home.

We have him home now and he's babbling and laughing while I'm typing this. We still have to bring him back Wednesday for the fundoplication, but we have him for now. Chris is going to take off Wednesday for the surgery and bring him. I will have to meet them afterward, after class.

Almost home...

Wednesday afternoon, the nurses told us that it looked like Kyle was scheduled for discharge the next day (Thursday), so I took off from work Thursday so that I could go straight from class to get Kyle. When I got to the hospital, though, they told me that they did not have the discharge order yet. They were waiting on authorization from pulmonology and cardiology for him to go home. They also told me that there had been some discussion over whether or not he would go home, since he's scheduled for the fundoplication surgery next Wednesday. After I was there about an hour, they got the word from pulmonology that Kyle was free to go but they were still waiting on cardiology. After another hour, they told me that they weren't sure that cardiology would be by that day. It might be Friday. I finally left at around 4:00pm since they told me that it was doubtful he'd be discharged that day and I didn't want to fight rush-hour traffic.

I went swing dancing Thursday night as a celebration of my birthday. All major catastrophes were avoided on my birthday this year, as opposed to last year's adventures with our car being stolen and me going into premature labor.