Peyton's surgery............

Sorry guys, I’m really just trying to make it through the day at this point. This journey has been much longer and more difficult than we originally anticipated!

We left Monday morning for Longmont for Peyton’s surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids. We were pleasantly surprised that the drive was very easy and traffic was light (thank goodness for the E-470!). Peyton met with Dr Carr first, then we headed over to Longmont United Hospital (LUH) to get pre-admission done, lab work, and chest x-rays. Everything went smoothly and they were super!!! The x-ray techs even brought Peyton back to see his x-rays and gave him a mini anatomy lesson J He thought it was particularly funny that he could see gas in his intestines, lol.

The rest of Monday was free. We got checked in to our motel in Boulder and hung out for a bit before heading into Denver to eat at Black Eyed Pea (one of our favorites, Peyton had never been – he’s now in love with the corn bread too! Haha). Then we decided to head to Pearl Street in Boulder and wander around. If you haven’t been there, it’s a really neat place! I don’t know the exact history of it, but it looks as though it was the original downtown district (lots of old, beautiful buildings) and they’ve closed the streets and it’s all paved with bricks. There are lots of neat places to eat and shop, and some fabulous street performers there! It really has an ambience all it’s own! We stopped at the Cheesecake Factory and got a slice to share back at the motel for dessert……..yummmmmmmmmm.

Tuesday we rose extra early and got to the hospital about 6am. Everything was pretty uneventful, getting checked in, vitals, etc. I was allowed to go back into the operating room and be with Peyton while they gave him the gas to put him asleep, and after I left they got the IV going, etc. About 7:30 the surgery started. LUH has special TVs in their surgery waiting room where each patient is listed (in code of course) with their Dr’s name, OR number, etc., and it shows the progress as the procedure happens. His surgery took about 15-20 minutes longer than expected (come to find out his IV went bad mid-procedure and they had to try again – actually twice before they got a good one). Dr Carr came and told us that everything went very well, and that they were QUITE large, but slid right out. The nurses later told us that they were very big for adults, much less a child.

Peyton took a bit to come out of the anesthesia and required a few doses of morphine to get the pain under control. Then we got to his room on the pediatric floor. Peyton came out with IV of course, O2 monitor, ice collar, and moisturized oxygen mask (but was allowed to just keep it near his face) which helped a bunch to keep him from feeling the need to cough.

We had a wonderful nurse the first day, Season. She thought Peyton was IT boy, she said if only she could clone him for all her patients ;) As expected, he slept most of the day. He did have a little trouble keeping things down early afternoon, but fortunately didn’t throw up and blood.

Later in the day Santa made a visit to the hospital to light their big trees and visit. It was so nice out, and Peyton wanted to go, so we went out and saw the lit tree, and Santa put Peyton first in line to visit with him! He got to ring the reindeer’s bells too! They even had a local community choir performing (with the grand piano that was in the lobby). It was very nice, and good for all of us to get out of the room.

Tuesday night was long and short at the same time. Seemed like every few minutes the alarm was going off that his oxygen was low or his pulse dropped below 70 (don’t know why that set it off???). We decided to wake him every 4 hours to give him his pain meds (capital with codeine) that night so that his pain didn’t get out of control. Mike went back to the motel to sleep and I stayed with Peyton in the hospital.

Peyton was still quite dizzy and nauseaous but we were allowed to head home about 11:30am on Wednesday, with what was left of the hospital bottle of pain meds (to use until we could get home and get his script filled). It was a VERY long trip home, as Peyton pretty much couldn’t keep anything down, including his pain meds. He was in a LOT of pain. Finally once we got home he had a bit of jello and another dose of pain meds and was able to keep it down and get a good nap in his bed. Finally he drank a bottle of water, so our worries about dehydration were eased a bit.

Thursday was pretty much more of the same. About the only thing we could get him to eat was frosties from Wendy’s, so that’s what he got. His capital with codeine finally ran out so we started his Lortab about 9:30pm. THAT was horrible. It’s an alcohol based elixir which, you guessed it, burned horribly on his throat. It hurt so bad Peyton ended up hyperventilating. It took a good 1 – 1 ½ hours to get him settled down and back in his bed. Dr Carr had called earlier in the evening and said that he would be in Goodland Friday (12/5) and we could bring him in if he was still mopey.

Friday morning came with no improvement, and still lots of pain, so I took him in. Dr said his wounds are healing beautifully, but that it was clear it was taking more of a toll on him than normal, so he gave him a steroid shot to give him a boost. We also discussed the pain med situation and Dr gave us a couple of scripts – one for a special med that had to be compounded here, to use long enough to get some capital with codeine here (it’s not usually kept on hand, which is why we didn’t get that in the first place). We got out to the lobby and Peyton sat down while I rearranged his appointments to come back. About that time Brylie took of into the gift shop, and Peyton started vomiting. Thankfully Avis Alcorn was in the gift shop and offered to watch her while I got Peyton settled. Peyton was actually being tended to by his teacher who happened to be there! Eventually we got him back to an exam room where the nurses helped get him cleaned up and got him some blankets so he could lay down for a bit to get settled.

As of right now, I’m seeing very little, if any, improvement in him still. The med is still being compounded.

Oh, a side note, Peyton was quite disappointed that our motel room faced the east – away from the mountains. He really wanted a mountain view, lol. He did, however, have a nice view from his hospital room!