Corbins Surgery

So, Tuesday Corbin had his tonsils and adenoids out and had ear tubes put in. The day started off great, he didn't cry or complain at all about not being able to eat or drink anything. The night before, I Packed our bags to prepare for an over night stay at Vanderbilt, and laid our clothes out for the next morning. We got to sleep in until around 9-ish. I woke up got my self dressed, then woke Corbin and Allen up to get them dressed. At this point Corbin Could still have Clear liquid until 10 a.m. got our bags, blankie, and Mickey, and headed out the door.

Once in the car, we stopped at Kroger to get gas, and something to drink. (Only to try and hide it from Corbin!). I knew I would be the one to Stay up all night with Corbin that night, so Allen drove, while Corbin and I slept, Only to be wakened up by being rear ended at the only red light between the hospital and the Ronald McDonald House. Thankfully no one was hurt, or our vehicle for that matter. Good thing we left early that morning.

Once we got there, we signed him in, and he was off to the play area, to play with the other kids. He was playing with this little girl that was about 5 or so, that had no hair. While all the other parents and kids were talking under there breathe and pointing, Corbin treated her like she was a completely normal little girl. Like she wasn't sick at all, and at that moment, Allen and I felt so proud that Corbin saw absolutely nothing wrong with her at all, and didn't recognize her as "being sick." I told Corbin how proud I was of him, and what was wrong with her, the best I could for a 3 year old.

After being called back to the holding area, we got our surgery Jammie's on, and watched a movie. Once we got tired of watching Chuggington, we played on Mommy's tablet, played with daddy, Mickey, dinosaurs. Of course boredom really kicked in, until he saw the little boy in the bed next to him, riding in a red and yellow car, and really, really wanted to ride in it.

His nurse gave him a surgery cap with horses on it. Then it was time comes to say our good byes. He was a little nervous at first, but like I said, Mickey did everything with Corbin. They let Mickey go to surgery with Corbin, and took his tonsils out as well.

We got to walk him to the Operating Room, then after that, his nurse took us to "Sub Waiting".  Allen's parents met us up there and were able to see him before he had to go back. By this point Allen and I were so hungry we thought our stomachs were starting to eat our back bones. So Connie and Clarence stayed in the waiting room, while Al and me went to get something to eat at the cafeteria. Around an hour later Dr. Tylor came and talked with us. She let us know that every thing went really well, and his tonsils were really huge, and he would be in the recovery room for about an hour, then go to a room.

When we finally got to go back and see him, he looks so pitiful. His O2 was staying in the 70-80 range. Even with him being awake it was in the high 80 low 90s range. Any ways, when he started waking up, he was in a lot of pain, so she gave him some IV Fentanyl. I tried uploading a video on here, of him in the recovery room, just because its super funny, but it wouldn't upload.

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Now were in our room. The nurses here were so amazing with him. If he felt scared, then they explained to him what they were doing, they even let him give his own meds in his IV.  H thought it was SUPER AWESOME. The picture above, is of Corbin singing "twinkle twinkle little star" while doing the hand motion. Bless his heart, he was so loopy.

Every time he drank anything, it would come out of his nose. Not really sure why, but it did. :S ...
I ended up sleeping in the bed with him, and his nose was running REALLY bad. We both fell asleep, and sometime during the night, I tried moving, and noticed that his little face was stuck to my arm, because his snot was like glue. I gently peeled him off of me, and at that moment he let out the loudest, longest scream I had ever heard. He kept saying. "MY FACE, MAMA, MY FACE, ITS BURNING"

While Allen let me sleep a little while, he took Corbin down stairs to the butterfly wall and stage, where they were having Child life specialist talk and work with kids about why they are there. Corbin got a stuffed animal, and put band aids on its knee's, and gave it a shot in the leg as well... funny he didn't put a band aid on the ears or throat. His child life specialist gave him a certificate, as well as a "champ" tattoo.

Finally on our way home.  See what I mean about his poor little face. It has to hurt.

Last night Corbin spike a fever of 103.1. So I took him to his pediatrician today because he has only peed 2 times in twenty four hours, quit drinking, as in ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, hasn't pooped in 4 days, wont take his meds, and in a lot of pain. So Mangru decided that he was going to admit him for dehydration, but instead sent us to Vanderbilt, because thats where his ENT doctors are and he had his surgery there. When we got there, the decided that they were going to admit him and give him IV fluids. But another doctor came in and said since he ate a popsicle for them and finally peed for the first time in 18 hours, he could go home. So now were home, and hoping that its just a virus he has.

Oh yeah, there was a little girl, the same age as him, had the same surgery done tuesday as well. She was in the ER too, for the same things.

2-14-12 labs/med change

CBC

 WBC: 1.5* thou/uL (3.9-10.7)

    Hemoglobin Blood: 9.6* g/dL(11.8-16.0)

    PCV BLOOD: 30* % (36-43)

    PLATELET COUNT: 42* thou/uL (135-371)

    Red Blood Cells: 3.26* mil/uL (4.00-5.50)

    MCV: 92 fL (81-98)

MCH: 29.4 pg (27.0-32.0)

    Mean Corpuscle Hemoglobin Concentration: 32.1 g/dL (31.0-35.0)

    Red Blood Cells Width Distribution: 16.2* % (11.1-14.3)

   

DIFFERENTIAL

 NUCLEATED RBC: 0 /100_WBC

NUCLEATED RBC#: 0.00 thou/mL 

 

COAGULATION  

 PATIENT (PT): 18.9* sec (11.8-14.5)

    INR: 1.6 

 

BASIC METABOLIC PANEL  

 Sodium Blood: 138 mEq/L (135-145)

    Potassium Blood: 3.7 mEq/L (3.3-4.8)

    Chloride Blood: 111* mEq/L (95-105)

    Carbon Dioxide Blood: 22* mmol/L (23-30)

    Urea Nitrogen Blood: 7 mg/dL (5-25)

    Creatinine Blood: 0.67* mg/dL (0.70-1.50)   

eGFR: > 60 ml/min/1.73m2

eGFRAA: > 60 ml/min/1.73m2

    Glucose Blood: 82 mg/dL (70-110)

    Calcium Blood: 8.4* mg/dL (8.5-10.5)

    AN-GAP: 5 

 

COMPLETE METABOLIC PANEL  

 PROTEIN TOTAL BLOOD: 6.7 g/dL (6.1-8.4)

    ALBUMIN BLOOD: 3.1* g/dL (3.5-5.0)

    BILIRUBIN TOTAL BLOOD: 2.1* mg/dL (0.2-1.2)

    ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE BLD: 89 U/L (40-110)

    AST: 42* U/L (4-40)   

ALT: 24 U/L (4-40)

 

while I was there getting labs drawn, one of the phlebotomists came up to me, and told me that she was a "psychic", and that I was pregnant.  she really FREAKED ME OUT! Not because shes a psychic, but because she said i was pregnant. All the other  phlebotomists kept telling me, that every person she has told that, has came back to tell her that she was right. So when I got back on the 29th, I'm going to inform her that she was WRONG. Talking about a relief! SSHHEEWWW!!!!!

 

Any who, my blood work was still stable enough to come down to 10mg of Prednisone. My MELD score is 15 right now. so that's still good for me. As long as it stays in the teens, I'm good to go. BTW, I list my lab results on here because i find them interesting for some reason. The numbers in red and blue are the levels of the tests, and the numbers in the parenthesis is the normal range they are supposed to be at. Blue numbers being "normal range", and red numbers being "out of normal range".

 

hope you have a wonderful day!

Erin

can you hear me now?!?!...

Finally, after 3 years of not listening to me, or what I thought was him "ignoring" me, we find out that Corbin failed his hearing test at Vanderbilt last week. He has had fluid hanging out in his ears for 3 years now, which has been causing all the ear infections and febrile seizures. They put these devices on him to bypass the fluid that's in his ears, to see if he has permanently damaged his hearing. Luckily, there is no hearing damage, he just hears like he is under water. the devices they put on him, looked like those hearing aides that are implanted behind the ear. Its a bummer I didn't get to go due to Strep Throat, but Allen did get a couple of pictures. But they may be too small to see.

After they checked his ears, they moved on to the Tonsils and Adenoids.  So apparently they measure the size of your Tonsils from 1-4.  A 1 being your Tonsils being very small, and a 4 being so enlarged that they are touching, and the airway being completely obstructed. Corbin's measured out at a 3 1/2. They are pushing up on his Adenoids, which are pushing on the tubes in his ears, which also makes it complicated for him to hear. We were told by his speech therapist that his tonsils are whats making it difficult for him to speak, which is somewhat true, but the hearing is the main concern.

So February 21, 2012, say special prayers for my little fellow. He will be going to Vanderbilt to undergo surgery. They are going to cut a hole in his eardrums, drain the fluid from his ears, leave the drains in, which will eventually fall out on their own, then they will put tubes in. But before they can do all that, they are going to remove his tonsils and adenoids. After that he will be admitted to the PICU to recover and hopefully if all goes well and he is able to eat and drink and use the bathroom through out the night, he can go home the next day. So, after all this Corbin can run again, without getting out of breathe, sleep with out snoring, HEAR NORMALLY, and speak without people having to ask me what he said.

We also told them about his breathing at night. He tends to stop breathing, and then 1-3 seconds later he lets out a LOUD noise, and gasps for air. So he more than likely has sleep apnea, which might be corrected after the tonsils come out, so after all is said and done, he has to go back for a sleep study, to see about a C-PAP machine at night. (LETS HOPE NOT!) I wonder if it has anything to do with him being a preemie? Cause he did come home on an apnea monitor when he was a baby.

Sorry this blog was a little long!

Erin