October 21, 2013

Post-surgery update on Ryan

It has been 10 days since Ryan's tonsillectomy and I'm quite thankful that we were warned, several times, by the doctor that we will probably not notice any differences for at least two weeks. His warning kept our expectations low.

But, maybe, not low enough.

Here he is... all ready for surgery.

The last ten days have been downright difficult. The surgery itself went well but Ryan needed oxygen afterwards and it took longer than expected for him to wake up. After almost an hour in the recovery room the nurses finally asked me to come hold him. When I got back there my poor little boy was crying in the arms of a stranger and obviously in pain. I held him on my lap and sang as much as I could of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before I burst into tears myself and tried my best to calm him down.

By 8:00 that night Ryan had successfully ripped out his IV and when we left in the morning he had only drank about 5 ounces of fluid. I'm still surprised that they let us leave the hospital, but it was Saturday and they must have had beds to clean or something because they kept assuring us that he would be fine.
And.... we were back in the ER on Sunday for an IV and fluids due to dehydration.


Maybe this is why they let him go. He was a little bit crazy.

And just because the universe cannot ever seem to give the poor little guy a break, he was also teething this past week.

Between the pain from the surgery, the pain from teething and the refusal to eat anything but formula he really hasn't slept well all week. And when I say hasn't slept well I mean...we're back to waking up about once every hour or at least 4-6 times per night.

I cried at work today when someone asked me how Ryan is doing. Because I'm so tired.

And, I'm so tired of being so tired. For almost 15 months we have been sleep deprived and continue to average about 3-5 hours of sleep. Excuse me, 3-5 hours of mostly interrupted sleep.

Which is why I declare myself to be productive each time the house gets cleaned or a load of laundry gets done or a meal is made. Because there are a lot of days that we are still in survival mode.

But...

All hope is not lost.

We are still holding onto that bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, by this time next week our dear little boy will finally be feeling better and sleeping better.

And if not?

I'll be in Las Vegas for a conference...and sleeping.

Perhaps prayers for my husband will be needed.