Logan had his surgery to correct his cleft pallet and also put tubes in his ears. Many people asked if I was worried about it but I really wasn't. I was more concerned about how recovery would be than the actual surgery. I have a lot of
confidence in his doctors and the hospital. They have been so wonderful. My sister came up to stay with me during the surgery. I was concerned about the language issues so the hospital had an interpreter available for us, although we didn't really need him. Thankfully they don't really do much prep until after they get the child asleep. The biggest ordeal was that Logan wanted a drink, but luckily they were about to give him the "silly juice" so that calmed him down. After that, he didn't care about anything. One thing that was interesting was that they were never able to get his blood pressure before he went back. He had the same problem when we had the doctors appointments a couple of weeks before.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time our family has been at this children's hospital. I have a nephew, Baby Owen, who passed away at 7 weeks. He spent those weeks at this hospital. The crazy, amazing thing...the surgery waiting room where we were for Logan's surgery was the NICU waiting room when Baby Owen was there. Yes, that's right. My sister and I were sitting in the very same room 7 and a half years ago.
The surgery didn't last as long as I expected, but all the doctors were happy with the results. The ENT did say that in addition to the fluid we knew about, Logan had also gotten an ear infection in the 2 weeks since she'd seen him. It was so bad, she suspected that his eardrum had ruptured. He must have a pretty high pain tolerance because although he complained about his ear he didn't seem too bothered about it.
It was so sad to see him in the recovery room. He had drainage from his nose, mouth, and ear. The big concern post-op for cleft repair is for him to drink. He actually managed that before we left recovery. Go Logan!
Once we got to the room, he became a little more alert and was completely freaked out by the O2 monitor on his toe. I felt horrible because I knew it wasn't hurting him and all I wanted was to just yank it off. He eventually calmed down once we took his sock off.
He stayed fairly medicated most of the evening which allowed him to sleep. Thankfully, he was asleep when Pastor Mike came to visit because he had brought a pocketful of lollipops...something Logan can't have for at least 3 weeks. The night was the worst because he wanted either me or Paul to sleep with him and they kept coming in to check his IV or other monitors. He managed to eat some yogurt and soup for dinner as well as plenty of fluids. The next morning he had some eggs and cream of wheat for breakfast. Once we were seen by the doctor, we headed home.
The recovery at home has been okay. I slept with him the first 2 nights but after that he seemed okay. Trying to get him to eat soft foods has been a challenged but he loves ramen noodles so that is the go-to meal if he won't eat anything else. He hasn't been too curious about the stitches in his mouth so that is good. Bath time is a little more difficult because we've tried to limit the splashing since he has cotton in his ears. We have follow-up doctor appointments in 3 weeks, and I'm sure all we be good!
