Last Friday Caleb had his adenoids removed and ear tubes placed in his ears. Too many ear infections, way way way too many runny noses, and more congestion than any one child should endure in a lifetime, landed this guy in surgery. Our favorite
ENT Dr.
Tagge {did Cali's tubes, tonsils, and adenoids + Carter's mouth surgery as a baby} suggested that it was time for Caleb to be able to breath without antibiotics!
On Friday morning we left RS at 5am, arrived at Primary Children's Medical Center at 7:45am for our check-in time. After paperwork, check-ups, cool hospital
jammies and socks, we waited in a
deluxe toy extravaganza of a waiting room. By this time Caleb had been without food for 12+ hours. Good for surgery, not good for a hungry boy. He managed to stay in good spirits {see above photo for proof} as long as Christian and I passed him back and forth, found cool toys for him to look at, and blew a million bubbles in his face.
When it was time to go with the doctor I tried to give him a kiss good bye, but he dove into her arms and didn't look back. He probably thought she was going to feed him!
During his 20 minute procedure, Bethany greeted us at the waiting room for a friendly visit. She was "working" but managed to get in some good hanging out too. I met a woman in the waiting room who had been at the hospital as early as we had. She said that she was starving. Like a kindly citizen, I offered her a granola bar and banana. To which she replied, "that
aint real food, what I really need is a Pepsi One and a cigarette!" When the hospital cart came around stocked with bagels and donuts, they didn't bring any Pepsi One or a cigarette....weird.
Anyway, Dr.
Tagge stopped by to tell us that Caleb was a champ. His adenoids were full of puss and snot leaking into his ear canals. I think he actually called it a "
reservoir of gunk", I appreciated that kind of description as I am the one who sucks this kid's "
reservoir" out every day.
I was then paged to meet Caleb in the recovery where, apparently, he had gone ballistic. Or as the kindly older nurse said, "this kid is PISSED OFF!" It took two grown men to hold him down, he ripped his IV out 5 times, and had his leg in a splint so he couldn't do it again. The oxygen monitor was strapped to his foot with a roll of surgical tape...He'd pulled it off a few times too. He drank 8+ oz of juice, threw the bottle and tried to throw himself on the floor. He kicked at the nurse while she was trying to hold him, caught his toe in the tie of her scrubs, untied her scrubs, which she nearly lost. He got tangled up in my necklace and broke it {rookie mistake wearing one in the first place}, beads flying everywhere!
He finally calmed down with the help of some more juice, and of course, his dad. Christian held him while I visited with Bethany and my dad's cousin Faye who works at
PMC. It was fun to catch up with her, and we had a nice visit. Soon it was time to go, they released us and our "baby sumo
wrestler" aka "tiny lion" as the recovery nurses called him. By then he was back to his sweet self, we loaded up Cali and Carter who had been playing at Carl's apartment downtown {they were NOT happy to see us and did NOT want to go home}. We promised them treats and bribed them to get in the car, then shut and locked all the doors and drove home. We made it home by 4pm, and were pretty much
exhausted.
Good news! Caleb is doing much better. Short recovery, not so many boogers, and he's back to his normal self.
{Ps. and FYI: I just noticed that the Pepsi One/Cigarette lady is accidentally and subtly featured in the background of picture one on this post}
