Surgery…

May 11 was the day we have been awaiting for quite a while now.  To back up…Hud has had ongoing sinus issues since October.  He had his first sinus infection then and it was downhill from there.  Nine sinus infections since October, 17 doctor appointments between November 18 and December 27 (seriously – 17), pneumonia in December, I have lost track of how many antibiotics and the list goes on and on and on. Meanwhile, I had been taking him to his allergist throughout all of this and he truly felt that the sinus issues were a result of Hud’s seasonal allergies (and I do love him and think he is a great doctor, I want to be clear on that).  So, as a result we were pumping tons (four to be exact) allergy medications into Hud daily. And it was doing zero good. He was congested all of the time (literally). His sleep was horrible. He was miserable. He would tell me (and his sweet teachers) that he didn’t feel good. I don’t think I can truly express how awful it really was.  Finally, in February the allergist told me he wanted me to seriously consider putting Hud on shots. I was not comfortable with that for a number of reasons, first because he is only four and second of all because I didn’t feel like the medications were making a dent, so therefore I felt like we were headed in the wrong direction. I told him I would think about it, but I wanted to consult our ENT first.  I called for an appointment, but we were not able to get in until the end of March. After five very long weeks, we got in with Dr. P. I told him the background and how I felt like something else was going on. He immediately agreed and noted how Hud was congested right then (because he was congested all.the.time.). He recommended we do a CT scan to see what was going on.  We couldn’t get in to that for another 2 weeks and then we had to wait another 2 weeks for the results.  When we were finally able to get the results, it was as Dr. P. and I suspected – Hud was 100% clogged in every single one of his sinuses. Dr. P. recommended surgery to clear those out and remove his adenoids, which looked normal sized on the scan. (Side note: The week before this Trent and I both had sinus infections.  We were miserable and all I could keep saying was – this is how Hud has felt for MONTHS. I cried the whole way home from the consultation. I still can’t get over how bad our sweet boy has felt for so long). I told the scheduler we wanted in as soon as we possibly could for his surgery. Unfortunately,  that was another 3 weeks…and the countdown began.

Finally, the day came.  Hud was the biggest surgery and therefore the first surgery. We woke him up at 4:30 and got to Cooks at 5:30.  The new surgery center is fantastic. They took us back to a private room to wait. Sweet boy who has been so happy despite feeling so bad, was even happy at such an early hour:

He chilled out watching some shows:

He wanted a book and our sweet nurse brought him one:

I didn’t get any pictures after this.  They brought him the giggle juice (which was as hilarious as the first time he had it with his ear tubes) and took him back shortly after that.  He got to take Judge with him.  Meanwhile, Trent and I got to stay in the private room and wait.  About 30 minutes later, Dr. P. came back and he was done!  He said Hud did great and that his adenoids (despite what the scan showed) were actually HUGE.  I was surprised at how quick it was (and the Dr. laughed at me and asked me how long I wanted it to take).  They took him to phase one recovery and then brought him to us. Thankfully, after the ear tubes experience we knew what to expect – the Incredible Hulk. And sure enough we heard him before we saw him…they had to put arm bands on in because he was trying to rip out his IV and was thrashing about.  They put him on my lap (thankfully the doctor and some friends had warned me about the dragon breath) and after a few minutes he calmed down.  After about an hour they released us.  In an unbelievable twist…he did not nap at all that day. And ate everything in sight! But, that didn’t last too long…