VERY long post about Roanie Macaroni and his day at the hospital

here we are, three weeks later and it somehow feels like so much longer ago. I think it's because this heat wave has just dragged on and it makes everything feel like an eternity.

but we're three weeks post op. and he's doing very well. but that day was LONG. our check in time was 8:00am but we sat there and waited for over 2 hours before he was rolled to the O.R
don't get me going about my feelings on that... I'll just say I guess they have very different ideas of what an acceptable wait for a hungry, thirsty and restricted 4 year old is...

it just got horribly boring. we got there, got checked in, the nurse went over all the questions, she showed us the blue bag for in case he was nauseous and another nurse gave him some pictures to color and the TV remote to watch cartoons... but Ronan is 4 and he has a hard time sitting for more than 2 minutes together. after 10 minutes the pictures were not fun anymore, after an hour the cartoons were not keeping his attention and we waited for still another hour trying to entertain as quietly as possible, since there was a little kid, recovering from getting his tonsils out, in the curtained off section of the room.
Tim had his ipod/camera with him and so that helped for a total of about 3 minutes... as did the surgical cap (which Ronan didn't need to wear)
my poor baby. he was bored out of his mind and wanted to go home so much.


Finally! after waiting for over two hours it was Ronan's turn. the anesthesiologist had come in and went over a few basics of general anesthesia and made sure to say that a small percent of people will get sick from the medicines used and then asked how we should handle administering his anesthesia.
there were 2 options.
1 have him drink a medicine to help sedate him and then hook him up to the gas to keep him under.
2 have him breath the gas and then place a tube from his nose down to his lungs. Ronan isn't the type to freak out about much so option 2 seemed the best and it was. they had a "balloon" attached to the mask for him to breath and they told him to breath really hard and try to pop the balloon. we'll remember this for later....
it was an hour before he was out of surgery and in the recovery area. they kept him there for a half hour before they brought him back to us.
he drifted in and out and we offered him some water during his slightly more alert moments. he had a sip of water and a minute later he had a panicked expression and asked "where is the bag?" at first the nurse thought because of the tube down his nose and throat there was a bit of blood in his stomach and he was most likely purging that. well, as it turned out, that wasn't totally the case. more on that in a moment.....


he slept again for about 30 minutes and then Tim thought he should go get some soft things for him to eat for the rest of the day. we figured we would be leaving relatively soon since he was waking often at that point. so he went and got pudding and jello for Ronan. it's a good thing he didn't buy anything frozen because then the General kicked in again and Ronan was out for another 2 hours. we needed to see how he was going to tolerate having something in his stomach and he wasn't about to drink or eat anything while sound asleep. I tried to gently wake him and I could tell that he could hear me but he just wasn't about to wake up so I took the blue bag and crinkled it and made some noise that was not normal for him to hear. interestingly enough that worked. he was up. we got him a popsicle and he nibbled it a little but was queasy so he grabbed the bag and then he needed another bag. and then he wanted to nap but was feeling so awful that he wasn't willing to part with that bag

so he dozed with it up to his face :(


he kept falling asleep and that would have been fine, but we were beginning to realize that Department was getting quieter and quieter and I thought we probably should hit the road. So we worked on getting him to stay awake.


Tim took him in to the bathroom and a moment later here comes Daddy without Ronan, "Mom, Ronan wants you." okay. but come to find out he wanted Mom because he was sick again. it's a natural Need when you're sick to have to have your mom. you crave that nurture and comfort that only a mother can provide, no matter how wonderful your daddy is. and Daddy is wonderful!

We got him cleaned up and packed all his release papers and grabbed two blue bags for the ride home. we got him in the car and I rode in the back with him. on the way home he hugged that blue bag so before we left town we got some food at burger king because Tim and I hadn't exactly had time to eat either... and I had a nice fizzy Sprite that I gave Ronan sips off of. sometimes that fizz can have a calming effect.

when we got home I put some blankets and pillow out on the living room floor. I didn't want to have to clean up an entire bed just in case...
he slept for hours more. nibbled on jello and pudding but never really ate anything. I slept with him on the floor that night. he was sick a few more times through the night. By morning I was beginning to worry - not eating and not keeping anything down. I checked the release papers and it said that it could take up to 24 hours for the anesthesia to completely leave they system. so I waited with him for a few more hours to make sure that it did wear off and then kept a close eye on him for the remainder of that day as well.
the hospital did a follow up call and they said that in the future if he needs to undergo any procedure where he has to be put to sleep that they should be made aware of his reaction. because even though the release papers say 24 hrs that really is a very long time to still be under those effects and sick too, because, you see, he was sick not because of the blood in his stomach, but more because of the drugs in his tiny body.
the day after that the dentist called to check on him. Ronan had said "that dentist didn't help me at all" "what did she do?" "she just made me puke all day". :(

and that balloon I mentioned.... ever since, Ronan has been very annoyed that he couldn't pop it