Darius Surgery Part Two

We woke up at 4AM this morning. Darius had a Cleft Palate Repair scheduled at 8AM at Sacred Heart Medical Center (SHMC). I made breakfast and packed up the car. We woke Darius up at 4:40 and wrapped him up in blankets and drove the 70 miles to Spokane from Pullman.

Our pre-surgery meetings with all the doctors went well, they asked the same questions to use three time and then let Darius play in the waiting room for a bit until 8AM. He drove around in a little car for a while and ended up playing bumper cars with another little girl, who must have been waiting for her own surgery.

Time to go in at 8AM, he leaves us on a bed, dressed in jammies with little tigers on them. He looks nervous, but doesn't complain or cry. He is calm and I kiss him good by and let him know that I will see him soon and that I love him.

We head down to the dining area to get some more breakfast. Second breakfast if you will. First Update: Darius went back and was happy and calm the whole time, no problems what so ever and they have started the surgery. Second Update: It is going very well and they are making good progress. Third Update (at 3:30 hours time): Still going very well. Fourth Update: Almost done and should be out soon... Hour passes. Dr. Peterson comes to get us. The surgery went very well, she was able to do the least invasive cleft palate repair, which was what we had hoped for. However, after they took him off ventilation in recovery he was not breathing well. The decision was made to put him back on ventilation and sedation for the rest of the day. This would give him time to reduce swelling.

We are lead back to him room and get to see him for the first time. He is asleep (from the sedation) and has a ventilation tub, IV, and leads. He looks like he was in a bit of a fist fight. The doctor tells us that she is going to put a tube into his stomach to relieve excess gas in his tummy from the intubation (second ventilation) that they did post op. We are gently told that this might not be something we want to witness. We get it and go put our backpacks and excess stuff in the car and then head back to his room.

We are greeted by a scene out of ER or Grey's Anatomy. No less than 8 nurses/doctors are surrounding Darius. Dr. Peterson tells us, that in the process of removing the stomach tube, the intubation tube also got dislodged. It was removed and he was breathing on his own, but not well. They where trying to see if he could make it on his own, so three nurses where swapping positions between doing a jaw lift to improve his air way, holding the mask over his mouth and suctioning blood and what not out of his mouth. There are two additional respiratory therapists and a respiratory doctor, plus Dr. Peterson. There was also our room nurse and a student respiratory therapist as well. Full Room. Come on in they say.

By the thinnest of threads I was able to pull it together and go in and say something encouraging to Darius, who is fighting to come out of sedation. For the next hour or so we all keep doing what we are doing. Every so often, his heart rate will start to fall and a nurse will call out the heart rate. As a parent it is extremely difficult to hear your child's heart rate getting lower. And lower.

Darius turns the corner. You knew he would, you can not stop "The Tornado". Over the next 3 hours he improves his heart rate, reparations and O-two intake with the help of all the amazing nurses and respiratory therapists. At about 4:30 in the afternoon he finally comes out of sedation and mumbles one word...

"Bma"

We immediately call Bma and she talks to Darius over the phone for about 2 minutes and he replies to her with a gravelly, high pitched "Ya, ... Ya, ... Ya", obviously answering in the positive to some question Bma was asking. We are told we can take him off the O-two mask and he does well with this.

Darius is up in bed and then in ViviAnne lap to watch "My Little Pony", not my first choice, but it was his, so we went with it. After about an hour awake, he had a little sip of water and then asked to go to bed. He is currently sleeping, and has been for about 2 hours. He has the IV still in and the leads, but no other assistance. Great job Darius! We had hoped to be transferred to the medium level ICU, but request denied, looks like ViviAnne will sleep on the chair in the room tonight. She has gracefully told me to go sleep in a hotel room (which my parents arranged for us earlier today).

Long Day.