Monday, May 28, 2012
Russell's 2nd cast...or not...
I'd forgotten to mention the rigmarole involved in giving
Russell a blessing Monday night. We hadn't originally planned to go to UT
separately (kids and I in the van going Monday morning, Scott in the truck
Monday night) but we decided to at the last minute, since that would help us get
the oven from my parents house to our house sooner. But this meant that Scott
couldn't give Russell a blessing, since he was already in bed Sun night, and
Scott wouldn't get to UT until late Monday night, and we would have to get up at
5am to leave for SLC Tues morning. We tried several people, all of whom would
have loved to come but we couldn't reach them, then we found my mom's uncle,
Uncle Bud and his son who could come over and give him a blessing. It just felt
really important that we give him a blessing. I'm so grateful to my great-uncle
Bud and his son for coming over and doing that.
So May 22 Tuesday morning dawned bright and early for us...Russell was scheduled to check in to Shriner's at 6:30 am. I was happy about this because it meant that he was the first surgery of the day, so we wouldn't get bumped back like last time. We got there, got checked in really fast, and everything seemed great and ready to go. Russell didn't even really have a runny nose anymore. I did tell Shriner's about it though, Sunday and Monday when they called us, but they said as long as he didn't have a cough or a fever he should be fine to have the surgery. But when he didn't have any symptoms of a cold that day, I thought everything would go great.
About 1 hour after they took him back, Dr D-- came and told us that Russell was wheezing, and they could hear a rattle with every breath he took. They'd given him albuterol to open up his airways, they gave him oxygen, but nothing would help. He said the wheezing just got worse. So they'd pulled him out, and decided not to cast him. The risks were just too great. They were going to wait for him to wake up, and then they'd bring him back to us. Imagine my shock. I was completely not expecting that to happen. Scott wasn't with me, because he'd gone to get our lunch, so I called him to tell him the news. Honestly, my first thought, along with the surprise, was, "We get another month without a cast? Another month to snuggle together? Yippee!!" Scott sounded about like that too. Just an unexpected blessing.
It was still hard though, that day. It was hard to absorb that we'd come all that way for a cast, to continue treatment, and suddenly not to go home with it was a huge letdown. Not like it felt like it was wrong, or that something bad would come of it, it was just frustrating to have done all that for nothing. To go home without a cast.
But still, so wonderful to have him without a cast. To cuddle, to be able to bathe him, to let him get dirty, to be able to go swimming, for him to weigh about 10 lbs less (it felt that way anyway), to not worry about leaky diapers, it was a wonderful thought.
It was hard to take in both emotions at the same time. Exhausting. Plus we'd gotten up early, traveled the day before, and it's just so exhausting to have a child go through surgery anyway.
When Russell was brought back (it took him two hours to wake up!), he wasn't very happy. The Versed they'd given him before surgery had not worn off yet, and they said it causes hallucinations as it wears off (wierd!! Scary...). The Albuterol gave him a fever and made his heart rate accelerate. He was still hooked up to all the machines, so we could see that his heart rate went up to 180 bts/min a lot. He was a very sad boy. And he really was wheezing. That was scary. We'd sent him off to surgery looking and sounding relatively healthy, and he came back sounding like he had croup, and crying, and hot-and they didn't do anything besides give him anesthesia and briefly intubate him. Other than the wheezing and fever, he did a lot better than when he got his first cast, so it wasn't that bad. He wanted to eat lots of jello and drink juice, so we got to leave about an hour and a half after he woke up.
We realized that since we'd driven separately, Scott could drive back to Idaho that day and go to work on Wednesday (instead of taking it off as we'd planned). So after we checked out of the hospital, we went back to my mom's house and I took a nap. Scott took all the kids to his parents' house (I was so jealous and wished I could be there, but I was in no shape to do anything besides sleep and try to take in everything that happened). They had a great time seeing everyone that day in Payson. When they got back, Scott immediately left for Idaho.
I was so glad we'd gotten that Priesthood blessing. It helped me to remember and know that Heavenly Father is really in control here, and what happened is for our good, especially for Russell's good. People have asked us if we're worried about his back regressing, and honestly, I'm not. I'm not worried about it. It might happen, it might not. We don't really know. But I'm not worried about it. I know that whatever's in Russell's best interest will happen, and it will be OK. I know Russell's going to get better, one way or another, and I'm just enjoying this brief reprieve from the cast. I know we'll be back in the trenches soon enough.
So May 22 Tuesday morning dawned bright and early for us...Russell was scheduled to check in to Shriner's at 6:30 am. I was happy about this because it meant that he was the first surgery of the day, so we wouldn't get bumped back like last time. We got there, got checked in really fast, and everything seemed great and ready to go. Russell didn't even really have a runny nose anymore. I did tell Shriner's about it though, Sunday and Monday when they called us, but they said as long as he didn't have a cough or a fever he should be fine to have the surgery. But when he didn't have any symptoms of a cold that day, I thought everything would go great.
About 1 hour after they took him back, Dr D-- came and told us that Russell was wheezing, and they could hear a rattle with every breath he took. They'd given him albuterol to open up his airways, they gave him oxygen, but nothing would help. He said the wheezing just got worse. So they'd pulled him out, and decided not to cast him. The risks were just too great. They were going to wait for him to wake up, and then they'd bring him back to us. Imagine my shock. I was completely not expecting that to happen. Scott wasn't with me, because he'd gone to get our lunch, so I called him to tell him the news. Honestly, my first thought, along with the surprise, was, "We get another month without a cast? Another month to snuggle together? Yippee!!" Scott sounded about like that too. Just an unexpected blessing.
It was still hard though, that day. It was hard to absorb that we'd come all that way for a cast, to continue treatment, and suddenly not to go home with it was a huge letdown. Not like it felt like it was wrong, or that something bad would come of it, it was just frustrating to have done all that for nothing. To go home without a cast.
But still, so wonderful to have him without a cast. To cuddle, to be able to bathe him, to let him get dirty, to be able to go swimming, for him to weigh about 10 lbs less (it felt that way anyway), to not worry about leaky diapers, it was a wonderful thought.
It was hard to take in both emotions at the same time. Exhausting. Plus we'd gotten up early, traveled the day before, and it's just so exhausting to have a child go through surgery anyway.
When Russell was brought back (it took him two hours to wake up!), he wasn't very happy. The Versed they'd given him before surgery had not worn off yet, and they said it causes hallucinations as it wears off (wierd!! Scary...). The Albuterol gave him a fever and made his heart rate accelerate. He was still hooked up to all the machines, so we could see that his heart rate went up to 180 bts/min a lot. He was a very sad boy. And he really was wheezing. That was scary. We'd sent him off to surgery looking and sounding relatively healthy, and he came back sounding like he had croup, and crying, and hot-and they didn't do anything besides give him anesthesia and briefly intubate him. Other than the wheezing and fever, he did a lot better than when he got his first cast, so it wasn't that bad. He wanted to eat lots of jello and drink juice, so we got to leave about an hour and a half after he woke up.
We realized that since we'd driven separately, Scott could drive back to Idaho that day and go to work on Wednesday (instead of taking it off as we'd planned). So after we checked out of the hospital, we went back to my mom's house and I took a nap. Scott took all the kids to his parents' house (I was so jealous and wished I could be there, but I was in no shape to do anything besides sleep and try to take in everything that happened). They had a great time seeing everyone that day in Payson. When they got back, Scott immediately left for Idaho.
I was so glad we'd gotten that Priesthood blessing. It helped me to remember and know that Heavenly Father is really in control here, and what happened is for our good, especially for Russell's good. People have asked us if we're worried about his back regressing, and honestly, I'm not. I'm not worried about it. It might happen, it might not. We don't really know. But I'm not worried about it. I know that whatever's in Russell's best interest will happen, and it will be OK. I know Russell's going to get better, one way or another, and I'm just enjoying this brief reprieve from the cast. I know we'll be back in the trenches soon enough.
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