One Week Post-Op

It's been one week since Caleb's tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy. I'm exhausted, and I'm sure Caleb would tell you that he's hungry. To catch you up to speed since my last post...

Caleb was discharged from the hospital the morning after his surgery. While that was the plan going into the surgery and even right after, I was surprised they discharged him. I didn't feel like he was drinking/eating well enough yet. The attending physician (who I liked and remembered from when Tyler was at the same hospital for RSV a couple years ago) said that kids who are "borderline doing well" usually do better at home. He was discharged with instructions to give Tylenol/Motrin every 3 hours for the first 24 hours and then as needed after that. He also had a Rx for three days' worth of a steroid and a Rx for a tetracaine lollipop. We were told not to let him drink from a straw for 10 days, because sucking on a straw could loosen the scabs in his throat and cause pain. We were also told to keep him on a diet of liquids and soft foods for 10 days.

I reluctantly took him home, and the hard work began. Caleb didn't want anything in/near his mouth. No drinks, no food, no medicine, and he hated having to be woken up during the night for his Tylenol/Motrin. I told Brad that I felt like I was reenacting a scene from "24" whenever I had to give him medicine. By Monday, we were concerned about how little he was drinking and were starting to worry that he might get dehydrated if something didn't change soon. Brad called the ENT's office and spoke with the nurse. She spoke with someone else (not sure if it was the ENT or the PA), and they agreed to let Caleb start using a straw. There was still the risk of the straw causing some scabs to come off, but they'd rather that happen than Caleb get dehydrated and need IV fluids.

Now that he's drinking from a straw, his fluid intake has increased a little. We also got some chewable Tylenol and Motrin, and he seems happier taking that than the liquid medicines. The jury's still out on the tetracaine lollipop. He doesn't like it, and it's another "24"-like moment whenever I try to give it to him. He seems pretty happy during the day now, but the nights are still tough on him. We're praying that he'll start sleeping better at night soon and that his desire to eat/drink will continue to increase. We've been told that the recovery period is about 10 days, so I'm hopeful that we'll see some big improvement by the weekend.