March 22, 2010

Tomorrow is the day....

Kooper will have his surgery tomorrow. He will have a tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy and tubes put in his ears. We scheduled this surgery just a couple of weeks ago, and I feel I have been pretty prepared and actually kind of happy about it for the most part. I know that it's going to be difficult, but it really will help in the long run.

Today, it has finally hit me that he is having surgery and although it's a common surgery, I feel the reality of it settloing in and to be quite honest, I am getting a little nervous.

I have been trying to prepare Kooper for the surgery so that he isn't scared and the whole process doesn't freak him out. We have been reading a little phamplet book that we got from the doctors office about the surgery and what will happen.
It's been really nice to have it  to help me explain to him about how we will go to the hospital tomorrow morning and that he will get special pajamas called a gown and a bracelet and get to ride in a special bed with wheels and about the stickers that will go on his chest and the special monitor he will get to wear on his finger that measures his oxygen and we practiced breathing for the doctors stethoscope and talked about how the nurse will put a cuff on his arm and it will give his arm a big squeeze like a bear hug.
Then we talked about how he will get an IV in his arm and that it is really important not to pull on it. Then Mommy will go into a special room with him and the sleep doctor will give him a mask to breathe through and he can pretend he's a firefighter. We pretened that our hands were the mask and practiced breathing through our masks and talked about how he will fall asleep and how the doctors will remove his tonsils and adenoids and then put tubes in his ears.
I showed him pictures of where his tonsils and adenoids are and what the tubes look like and where the would go. We talked about the surgery and how he would be asleep until after the surgery was over but as soon as the doctors were done, Mommy and Daddy would be there when he woke up and that the pain meds would start to wear off and his ears and throat would start hurting.
We talked about how his throat would hurt and that he would need to drink plenty of water and milk and only eat soft foods.
We went to the store today and I let him pick out pudding and jello and ice pops and I got him some baby food, some cream of wheat, some baby oatmeal and I let him pick out some soup. He is so cute, he picked out disney princess, sponge bob and dora the explorer shaped chicken noodle soup. I was sure that he would have wanted the cars shaped ones, but he didn't. I got him a couple cans anyway.
We also got him a cool spiderman ice pack. I will have to ask the doctor if he can use an ice packm, but I think he should be able to. He is pretty excited about the spider pack... LOL

He took a bath and picked out his jammied that he wanted to wear to the hospital. He picked out his cars jammies. I asked him if he wanted to take a blanket and a toy with him tomorrow. He picked out his race cars blanket that I made for him and his favorite teddy bear from Papa Earl and Grandma Alice.

We then talked about how he couldn't have anything to drink after midnight and so I let him have some milk before bed. I am going to feel horrible when he wakes up in the morning and I have to tell him that he can't have anything to drink. I don't think eating will be a problem for him, but I know that he will be grumpy without something to drink.

well, I had better try to get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day, and I have a feeling I am going to need all the sleep that I can get.

1 comment:

  1. That doesn't sound like fun . . . I hope all goes smoothly and quickly for you all. :O)

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