number 8

I had a memory this morning while driving to the hospital for Jackson's surgery (I was in the van at 4:30am and it was raining). I remembered March of 2009 when Jackson was just 2 months old. He was admitted for the first time since birth in the NICU. We were at St. Mary's Hospital in Decatur, IL for RSV and that first night in the room I wrote my first blog. This was back when I was using www.carepages.com. I stayed up all night, literally, writing about the pregnancy, birth, nicu time, and first 2 months. Here I am, 27 months later, and I'm still writing my blog, although now, obviously on www.blogger.com.

This morning, as I'm sure everyone has figured out, was Jackson's 8th surgery. Jackson is 29 months old and he just had his 8th surgery. I thank God every day that Jack had a 16 month break between surgery number 7 and surgery number 8.

Ok. Here I go with the surgery.
Jackson arrived at Pediatric Surgery at 5:30am. My mom came (she's been at every surgery). Jason came as well. It was really nice to have him here. During pre-op we learned that Jackson was to also have some surgery on his nose to straighten his septum. That was fine by us since he was already going to be sedated. Jason and I took him back to surgery at 7:35 after a wonderful drug called Versed ( It makes Jack all loopy!) We were told after the IV was placed and anesthesia was started, the Adenoid and Tonsil removal should take around 30 minutes. Jackson also had to have the sedated echo, so some 15 minutes or so for that. Well, 2 hours later we finally see the ENT doctor. We were all getting nervous because we expected the surgery to take 45 minutes once surgery started.

Jackon had the echo first. After he was prepped for the ENT procedure, his doctor worked on his tonsil removal. She said that his tonsils were similar to an adult, not a child. Every time she pulled up a tonsil to cauterize and remove, part of the tonsil would break off. This happened many times. I let her know that I thought maybe this was because of the 'cutaneous' part of his syndrome. The adenoid removal came after the tonsils. On a scale of 1-4, Jackson's adenoids were a 3. Next came the septum restructuring. This was supposed to involve a surgical tool that slowly pushes and forms the septum. We learned from the ENT that Jack's nasal passages were practically closed and she was very surprised that he could breathe through his nose at all. She performed an outfracture of turbinates. I tried to find some info quickly to link for you. I am so very tired. Here's a picture of the inside of the nose with images of the septum and turbinates.

Jack did not wake up happy in recovery. He was limp at first but very fussy. He kept trying to sit up on my lap and would fall forward because he didn't have strength yet. Jason had to hold him because he was trying to pull at the IV and kept fussing and hitting. We received a wonderful drug to calm him down. It was magical! Jack made his way up to a room. I wish I had some good news regarding recovery but there is no change between 11am and 10pm. Jackson has been given oxygen several times because his saturation levels keep dropping They have dipped to 88 and to 86. His ear is bleeding every now and then from having excessive wax removed. His nose he bleeding every now and then from the nose surgery. His mouth has a bunch of dry blood and his breath is very stinky. His voice is weak and barky sounding. When he cries he sounds horrible. When he coughs he sounds miserable.

I pray that the morning will bring a happier Jack.