Timothy's Surgery August 22nd 2012

Wednesday August 22nd

Everything is going as planned.  The epidural was successful and that was really good news.  It is long and tedious surgery and hope to be done by 5pm.  Everything so far is going well or normal. 

We just saw the doctor.  He is still in recovery, but things went well.  They left the nuss bars in and his sternum was so crocked it took them awhile to flatten it.  She said it looked like a ski jump.  She said it looks really good and everything went well.  He will be in the hospital for 5-7 days and I am still waiting to see him.  It was 6 plus hrs of surgery.   A very long day and we aren't done.  

Timothy is finally sleeping.  After the surgery he wasn't breathing well enough, so he ended up in the ICU.  They thought it was the epidural, so they stopped that and their goal was to sedate him while the tube was in and hope he would get some sleep.  It took awhile to get that to work and convince him he would be ok and that he could breath even with the tube in.  I had the same problem after my surgery, so it has been hard for me to watch him suffer.  They seemed to have found something that is working.  I hope he will sleep now.  Thanks for all your kindness and prayers in our behalf.  It has really helped me get thru this day.

 It was a busy night and morning.  It was hard with the tube in his throat, it hurt and he couldn't talk.  At times he would try to write on a white board, but it was really hard to interpret.  This morning the tube came out and he was very happy to be understood again and less charades.  Then the pain management was on.  We were failing.  The epidural wasn't working, so out it came.  Now things seem to be stabilizing and he was even smiling at times and being his normal funny self on drugs.  It will be up and down for the next couple of days.  If all goes well he should be out of ICU sometime today.  He just got his first slushy and will be trying to keep food down today.  

Thursday August 23rd

 Timothy is doing much better today.  The surgery went very well, but long -8 hours.  As he came out, he was having trouble breathing, so they moved him to the ICU and left his breathing tube in over night.  It is now out and he is doing much better.

A little set back this afternoon will keep us in the ICU another night.  A combination of drugs took him to a point where he stopped breathing.  Fortunately I thought he was making an unusual noise while breathing about 5 minutes before and had a nurse listening to him when he stopped.  She pushed "the button" and within 15 seconds there were more than 12 people in the room and within a couple minutes there where more than 20 including the portable x-ray guy.  It took several minutes before he opened his eyes (and then panicked and fought us) but within 15 minutes he was breathing without assistance.  Scared me good and confused him a lot. 

That was two hours ago.  He is doing much better now.  Our project for the evening is to move up from clear liquids to crackers and other liquids (tomato soup and goldfish are coming for dinner.

A much better evening.  Timothy is keeping food down and we got him out of bed tonight.

My father came up and gave me a blessing and we gave Timothy a blessing, so we all, including Tresa, feel better.  David

Friday August 24th

We had a good night.  Several good blocks of sleep.  We are going to work on solid foods today and switching all of the meds to oral.  Timothy is in good spirits as am I.  David

He had a good morning and around 3pm his headache was really bad and he threw up and again at 4pm.  They have tried a lot of stuff, but his headache is still rather bad.  We are now out of the ICU and upstairs in room 3077.  It is quiet and the room is darker, so hopefully that will help his headache.  He is finally sleeping.  I hope that sleep will help and tomorrow will be a better day.  I think his spirits are down, because nothing has really helped his headache.  

Saturday August 25th

He had a bad headache last night, but the room was quite and there were less interruptions. He didn't think he got very much sleep, but there were a couple two hour stretches that really helped.  This morning the headache was better.  He is eating and went on a short walk and making fun of his mom. ( I couldn't get the movie to work and don't do the x box controllers very well).

Bro Larson took over for me while David works.  I hope he survives.  I left him watching X-men with Timothy.  Overall he is doing a lot better.  He still has a fever, so they took blood to rule out an infection.  He will also have an X-ray today and see if the chest tube is ready to come out.  I am not sure about the other drain tubes, I think they will be longer.  His overall pain has been better, just a lot of set backs.  We hope to keep moving forward today.  Thanks for all your support.  

Erin and Grandma came up to be with Timothy, while David was at work.  They did a great job, but he did miss David and me.

I am finally back at the hospital.  I worked 25 of the 32 hours I was away (my company moved from Orem to Lehi this weekend...) but I have returned to find Timothy asleep and doing well.  He has been eating and walking and generally doing well.  We still have a couple of milestones before he goes home.  He needs three drainage tubes out and, of course, must poop!

Thanks to those who helped today and we appreciated all of your love and prayers.

David

Oh, and who is the MVP of the Rice Invitational?  Jennifer Hamson!

Sunday August 26th

We went to church in the morning and Sara and Heather sang in the Choir.  Then we listened to Heather give her  8th article of faith in primary and then off to the Hospital we went.  It was quite an crowd when we got there.  I had Heather, Sara, Alan and Grandpa and Jennifer was on her way.  It as a quite day.  We were waiting on x-rays to see if he was coming home.  We watched movies with Timothy and visited and then watched more movies while he was sleeping.  Then at 7pm we found out that he could come home.  We scrambled to get everything ready with the bed and oxygen and packed everything up.  It was nice to have Jennifer around to help.  She drove Timothy home and I finished packing and followed in the little car.  It was about 10pm when we were all settled, but it was great to home.

Tuesday August 28th

One final report:

Timothy has been home for two nights.  We all are getting much better
sleep.  Timothy is doing very well.  The pain level, especially when
compared to the March surgery, is much lower and easier to manage.  He
is wandering the house, feeding him self and generally doing very
well.  We expect to have him back in school (2-3 classes a day) next
week.  Once he got a couple of days past the anesthesia and now with a
couple of full nights sleep, he has clearly turned the corner as they
say.

Thanks for all of your prayers, love and support.  They are important
to us and help us.

David

Timothy is doing great.  He went for a 15 min walk, washed his hair and he took a 3 hr nap.  He says he doesn't need a nap, but he is still healing.  The pain is so different and the Oxycontin is not used very much at all.  We are so thankful for that and once the tubes are out I am sure it will be even better.  I  think I am going to have more of a slow him down problem with this surgery.  His chest has to be treated like a broken bone, so for 6-8 week he can't be bumped or things thrown at him etc.  He can walk and on Friday I will find out more about what he can or can't do.  Thanks for all your love and support.  I just need a couple more good night of sleep and I should be back to normal.   

Tresa

After Surgery in ICU

Going to get his Chest  x-ray

At home, but still has his tubes in.