Miracle Boy and the Lone Star State

On the Tuesday before leaving Chicago, "Beau" had an appointment with an ENT to check-out his tonsils.  The doctor gently chided me saying, "in a case this severe he really should've come in immediately."  My jaw dropped, "Pierre" could tell you I have been relentless in calling their office for cancellations, plead his case in tears, had several conversations with the on-call doctor in the wee hours of the morning, and took him to the ER in the middle of the night (severe obstructive sleep apnea.)


Thursday morning "Beau" had an adenotonsillectomy at Children's Medical.  Surgery went well and "Beau" thoroughly enjoyed post-operative diet of sherbert, jello, juice etc. They kept him overnight to monitor his breathing.

In the middle of the night (around 2 or 3 am) "Beau" sat up and vomited tons of bright red blood.  "Beau" said something like, "I feel better" and fell asleep while the nurse began paging the on-call surgeon, anesthesiologist, etc. He began to whimper and this time they had one of those large pink buckets, he filled 1/3 of it with more bright red blood.  Then they drew his blood in preparation for a transfusion.  He didn't complain or wiggle just stared straight ahead but on the second vial began to whimper and sat upright--again more bright red blood.  And then again.  They were kept handing me forms to quickly sign, while medical personnel bustled around us and my baby lay gray and still on the bed.

Surgery was successful, they cauterized the bleed and pumped his stomach.  But just seeing him post-surgery was tramatizing.  He was very out of it but screamed at any touch, including mine.  His face and neck were extremely bloated.  He couldn't speak but whimpered in his sleep.  I had to force him to walk laps (with his equipment) because of the fluid in his lungs.  The sides of his mouth as well as his nose (from the tube) were cracked and bleeding.  The only time he spoke to me in 24 hours was to say, "my shoulders are broken" (sore from surgery?)  All that night he had trouble breathing (from swelling?) and literally was woken and adjusted to get more oxygen about every 5 minutes all night long.       

He is a miracle boy.  He survived losing a lot of blood.  We are so grateful that we were already at the hospital so they were able to quickly stop the hemorrhaging.  We are so grateful to have him in our lives.He was very brave and while quite traumatized, he is rapidly returning to our sweet little boy.

He had not been released from the hospital by the time "Pierre" needed to leave for his summer internship. "Pierre" flew out to his internship.  My mom flew to Chicago and helped me tend to "Beau" and then drove us down to Texas.

Texas is HOT! (I fear for Button's skin.)  But I love the country music, the pool, and especially hanging out with my sister-in-law.

We live in a little house on the prairie and every day have horses at our fence.  ("Button" rediscovers them every 5 minutes and squeals "Moo!!  Moo!!!"  No matter how many times we tell her horses say "neigh," it's always, adorably "Moo.")

Moving to Texas seems like a natural segue to stop blogging.  (Pragmatically, I don't have internet access.  Additionally, the past couple of months have been a little wearying.  We're looking forward to slow, sweet summer days playing with Button & Beau.)   I still love reading all your blogs!  Thanks for reading!