casey's surgery - day 1

Casey’s surgery – day 1: The day isn’t over yet, so perhaps my title is premature, but… The surgery was at 7:30a which met check-in at 6:30, which meant our babysitter had to show up at 6a.m.! Things went very smoothly and at almost exactly 9:30 the doctor came and told me that the surgery was over and had been a success with nothing unexpected. I’d been told beforehand that Casey would be a ½ hour to an hour “waking up” enough that they could get him dressed and in a chair, and then I’d be allowed to see him. It was almost an hour and a half later when a nurse came and told me that Casey had an asthma attack (he hasn’t had one since he was 3!) and seemed to be doing better after a nebulizer treatment and some oxygen, but that he was still going to be a while. I forget the timing of events from there, but Casey’s oxygen saturation wouldn’t stay up without oxygen assistance, so they took him for a chest x-ray. They found fluid in his lungs and a lot of air in his belly, both of which made it hard for him to breathe. Instead of getting to see him at 10:30, it was nearly 3pm before I was allowed back. I stayed with him for an hour watching his O2 saturation go up and down until finally it stayed up and he was released to go home. It seems there were a number of factors at play. 1) The pain killers are also central nervous system depressants and other patients in the recovery also had short-term O2 sat problems. 2) The anesthesiologist and the nurses believe that Casey’s snoring is because of sleep-apnea and the anesthesiologist heard Casey make a snoring/gurgling sound as he was coming out of the anesthesia. She thinks the apnea of a (I forget what words she used, but it meant “relaxed”) throat caused him to aspirate some fluid. 3) The air in his belly put pressure on his diaphragm making it harder for his lungs to expand.
Since he’s been home Casey has been doing very well. He ate a good dinner, took a pain killer, and was comfortable enough to get a little sleep in his recliner.