Benny's surgery

I'm sure lots of people are wondering what exactly happened with Benny over the last couple of weeks. Thank you so much for all the prayers that were said for him. Although it was MUCH longer than expected, he is completely recovered and back to his goofy self.

 

 

 On November 30th, I took him to Gilbert Surgical Center to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. He has been super sick over the last year and it turns out that his tonsils played a huge role in that. He also has periods of sleep apnea at night due to his tonsils being too swollen. He is such a little ham here. This was right before he went in for his surgery.

 

 

 

 He made me laugh because he would not keep his undies covered. Most of the time when you see someone in a hospital gown, they are so worried about people seeing their tooshy. Well... he had no shame, LOL. He was singing Christmas songs the entire time we were in pre-op. Other nurses would come over to our curtain to see what all the noise was about. It was pretty cute.

 

 

 

 Here is Ben after surgery. Dr Mancuso is his ENT and he is amazing with Benny. He said everything went routinely and they watched him for a few hours and then we went home. He was throwing up the entire time we were in recovery, but they told us that was normal, so I took him home. His surgery was on a Friday. Well by Sunday he was still throwing up and was super miserable, so I called Dr Mancuso and he called him in a prescription for Phenergan. It is supposed to help with the nausea. I know this is turning into a long story, but want to write it all down so I don't forget. Just skip through and look at the pictures if you're bored. So anyhoo, by Tuesday he was really acting like he was feeling yucky. I went in to switch the laundry over and I noticed him laying on the couch, just staring at the blank TV screen. I asked him if he was OK, and he didn't really answer. He just rolled over and went to sleep. I called Dr Mancuso's office and they told me that I needed to bring him to the hospital and they would get a room ready for him so we wouldn't have to go to the er. So I started finding a place for me to take Malachi to and also my niece Lily (who I was baby sitting at the time). Benny was on the couch, and I heard him kind of grunt. I went over to him and he was convulsing, at least from what I think convulsing looks like. I think my heart literally stopped at that moment. His eyes rolled in the back of his head. He had pee and spit all over him. So I got the baby and Lily buckled and then came back in and picked up Benny and got him buckled. I dropped lily off at Becca's house. By this time, I had been able to get a hold of Thomas and he was able to leave work early and take Malachi for me. So I started driving to Cardon's Children's Hospital. I called the Dr office while I was on my way and they told me to just take him to the er, because they didn't have a bed ready for him yet. Then they called me back about 10 minutes later and gave me the room number. Benny just slept the whole time in the car. He kept making noises, so I knew he was breathing. I was so overwhelmed. I just wanted to cry. I needed someone who knew what to do. There was such a relief when I pulled into the parking space and unbuckled him and carried him into the entrance. 

 

 

  

 The nurses there were so good.

 

 

 

 They took him to another room to start his IV. Luckily by this time, both Nana (tom's mom) and Nama (my adopted mom) were there. Nana went with Ben to get the IV, which was good. I'm not sure if I could have handled it at that point. Me and Nama Dena went to get dinner. They have a toy closet at the hospital and if they are good during IV's and other painful procedures, they get to pick out a toy. They had to poke him two times to get the IV, so they let him pick two toys. He was good to go after that, at least for the night anyway.

 

 

 

 They had a therapy dog at the hospital to make the kids smile. Ben loved him. He is so allergic to dogs so he doesn't get to play with them very often.

 

 

 

 Once he got all the pain medicines in his system, he seemed to do better and was able to drink some. He was on morphine, lortab, toridol and zofran.

 

 

 

 Lucky for Benny, his Nana is a nurse at this hospital and knows where all the fun stuff to do is. She took us to go see the trains.

 

 

 

 Every day, they had an activity for the kiddos on the third floor. It was good for him to get out of his room and walk some. Here he is with the Santa hat he made.

 

 

 

 Coloring cures everything :-)

 

 

 

 He wanted his room to look Christmasy. So, being the super cool mom that I am, I tried to make snow flakes and snow balls and out them up all over his room. Auntie Sarah and Nana came later that night and made many more snowflakes. Turns out that snowflake making is not one of my talents :-P

 

 

 

 Here are some ornaments we made at one of the activities.

 

 

 

 One day, we went to see a puppet show. He LOVED it. It made me so sad because he needed to leave to get more pain medicine. He was super miserable. But the puppet show made him laugh.

 

 

 

 Yay!!! No more IV. Turns out that high fevers cause seizures in kids. I guess it's actually fairly common and not a huge concern. It scared the heck out of me though. He was miserable for a few more days after we brought him home, but once we were able to get him off the Lortab, he was so much better. The medicine just made him so nauseated and miserable.

 

 

 

Back to his usual crazy self. Thank goodness. I am just so thankful for every ones prayers and support. And I am most thankful to have my little Benny safe and happy and healthy.