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.