Saunders Excellent Adventures: Same Song -- Third Verse 3

Wednesday -- I slept so well, and Kyle did too -- took his medicine, and then slept. After 18 hours he woke up enough to come downstairs, where, with a movie going and propped up on the couch, he fell back to sleep. I could rouse him enough to get his medicine down him, but then he would go back to sleep. He went upstairs for bed, and slept, but during the night began coughing, so hard that his incision was bleeding, and he couldn't keep his pain meds down.

Thursday morning -- After calling the doctor (s) -- both the ortho and neuro -- we headed to the ER at Children's. It took three of us to get him to the car, and he moaned with every bump we hit....sitting up-rigt -- well, leaning, up-right against me pretty non-responsive. When we arrived at the ER, he was taken immediately to a room, where an IV was started and they ran two liters of fluid into him in 3 hours. Gave him some pain meds through the IV, and he perked up a bit when those started to work.

He was admitted to the surgical unit, where the medical team would manage his pain. The neurology team didn't feel -- even though this was post-surgery -- that he needed their services. Color me, unimpressed!

The medical team was great. A third unit of fluids, and he started feeling well enough to sit up and eat and drink. He did pretty well over-night, but by Friday morning he was less responsive again. I knew he was not feeling well, when they did rounds and 8 cute women, crowded into the room and he wouldn't even open his eyes to look at them. Two hours later he was again, non-responsive -- the doc's asked me if this was what I meant when I said that he "wouldn't wake up" -- they were perplexed and a little worried, so instead of going home, we went for a CT scan -- which was good and didn't show anything it shouldn't have. Before we went down for the CT, they'd given him some extra pain meds, and after that he perked up. Again, eating and drinking, using a walker to walk to the nurses station and back, going to the bathroom and back. All his labs were normal.....

....so the consensus was that his pain was not controlled when he went home, so he stopped eating and drinking, which made him feel worse, and he basically "shut-down" because of the pain. Once his pain was under control, he "came back to himself" -- well a CRANKY version of himself, but that is to be expected.

I got thinking that, were it me, I'd certainly not want to have Tylenol for my pain relief after a major surgery, and it made much sense to me.

Let me just pause here and just say that we had great care with some great nurses! What a job they do, dealing with and serving families, and dealing with cranky children, who have every right to be cranky because they feel awful.....we were so blessed with good care.

Not all nurses are created equal though -- and the two that sent us home -- were on the receiving end of a Mama Bear, who didn't want her boy coming back -- and understanding the Doctors plan of pain relief, let me share -- OKAY, vent!
       Me: "I don't see the Ibuprofen on the meds list"
       Nurse: "Well, you can get that over-the-counter."
       Me: "Okay, can you tell me the conversion then? How many teaspoons is 650 ml?"
       Nurse: "I don't know. Just follow the dosing instructions on the box."
       Me: "Well, since it's liquid, and the liquid is generally for children aged 2 -11, the dosing on the box doesn't cover what he'd need. How much would I give him?"
       Nurse: "Just follow the dosing instructions on the box."
       Me: "Look -- the Ibuprofen is part of the plan to control his pain. The doctos have set it up so that he's getting either Tylenol or Ibuprofen every three hours. Here in the hospital he's been getting 650 ml of Ibuprofen every 6 hours. He's supposed to be going home with that, according to Dr. Michelle Terry. I don't want to under-medicate him, or over-medicate him. And I don't want him coming back in a few days because his pain isn't under control. Sooo could you please find out for me what the conversion is?"
       Nurse: "I don't know, and I don't know how to find out."
       Me: "Well then," (note that here I was holding on to my patience by a thread) **deep breath** "would you please call the doctor and have them give me a prescription?"
       Nurse 2: "Ma'am" (I hate it when they call me Ma'am) "it will take a couple of hours for the pharmacy to fill a prescription."
       Me: "Then have the doctor WRITE me a prescription and I'll take it to my local pharmacy."
       Nurse: "FINE!" big huff and he walked out.

About 15 minutes later, a different nurse, smiling, came in and delivered a written prescription.

I loaded Kyle in a wheelchair, and Jon picked us up out front -- at about 11 a.m. Going home!!!! Again!!!! Hooray!

Just a small note - for those who might be interested -- when I went to the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist to convert it for me -- It would take a 4 oz bottle of Ibuprofen a day -- because 650 ml converts to 6 teaspoons every 6 hours. So the pharmacy filled it -- or part of it -- becase it will save me so much money to get it as a prescription instead of over-the-counter.

Sunday morning -- Kyle came downstairs and was watching a movie -- Sunny was asleep on the couch and Kyle laid back down and went to sleep -- still holding the TV remote in his hand.