Overall Sam’s surgeries went well. The second surgery was a bit more invasive than we expected, but with a few restrictions, he was back at school the next day.

Recovery has gone well for the most part. We had to keep an eye on some bleeding, but thankfully that subsided.

About a week ago he started more secretions and then retched (threw up) the entire night. After making a call to surgery, we were advised to have Sam be seen either by his pediatrician or take him to the ED (Emergency Department). In order to avoid the ED, I was on the horn at exactly 7:30 that morning as soon as the clinic opened. Sam’s pediatrician wasn’t there, but we were able to see another pediatrician who also sees complex kids. So glad we were able to avoid the ED.

A small recap that morning…

Get the report from the night nurse on Sam’s night after we finally got him to sleep again around 3:00am. Check the discharge paperwork to see the section on, “When to Call the Doctor”. Call the doctor. Bummer…the doctor said to get him into his pediatrician or if were not able, go to the ED. Give the report to the day nurse coming on. Oh yeah, a new nurse is training today. Great day for that. Oh well, it will be good experience for her. Try to keep a smile on my face as introduce myself to the new nurse and hopefully make her feel welcomed. Wake Will and Abby up for school. Make lunches. Eventually tell Will he’ll have to wear dirty socks to school after he, to no avail searched for clean ones. Take Will and Abby to school. Take a shower. Throw in a load of laundry. Run to the store to get Pedialyte since Sam couldn’t tolerate his formula overnight. Throw the load of laundry in the dryer. Double check we have all five bags. Buckle Sam in his carseat. Whew! All that in only a few hours! Only twelve minutes later than when we wanted to leave! We did it! Nice work ladies!

Seeing someone who doesn’t know Sam was a bit interesting. After some discussion and me giving the pediatrician a very small dose of Sam’s medical history, he checked out Sam’s surgery area. I knew as soon as he started fumbling over his words, he was concerned. He danced around his words until I stepped in and helped him finish what he was trying to say, “So, you think we need to get an ultrasound.” He shook his head saying yes. His concern was on the left side. Sometimes I wish there could be something in Sam’s charts that could forewarn medical personnel not to sugar coat things for me. It’s been over the three years now and I know when doctors are giving concerning or difficult news. I wish something said, “She can handle the hard stuff and won’t freak out. Give it to her straight.”

Surgery met us in the ultrasound room. Knowing Sam well and his history from the beginning, she was ear to ear smiles to see how well Sam was doing overall. She also had a good chuckle when the ultrasound tech shared there was a hematoma on the left side which wasn’t too concerning, but there was a small hernia on the ride side. The reason surgery had a chuckle is because she thought it was a classic Sam move to have a little twist in his story.

At the end of the day, the retching was likely related to a cold Sam was brewing, which I also had to explain to the pediatrician after the ultrasound. I reassured him the throwing up wasn’t something we would have brought Sam in for otherwise. We brought Sam because it was so close to surgery and they wanted to be sure the retching wasn’t surgery related. I explained the retching is unfortunately the nature of Sam when he gets a cold.

With an extra boost of nebs, or twelve nebulizer treatments, four times a day, Sam seems to have fought off the cold. Thank goodness!