Two weeks post surgery!

Spencer 2 weeks post surgery

I forgot to mention in the last blog about the drug regime we used and realized I was holding back some important information.  The first day we were home I continued with the Tylenol and Advil routine every four and eight hours respectively. The next day being the Tuesday (6 days post surgery) I noticed that Spencer seemed to be having stomach issues. He began to vomit and he was eating less and that was because of all the drugs. So I consulted my pediatrician as I was worried about dehydration mostly, and he gave me some very sound advice. He told me to buy a drug called ACET which is accentually Tylenol but suppository form so that it would bypass the stomach. This helped tremendously and the vomit stopped almost immediately.  After that issue it was all uphill.

The second week home was easier than I had expected. I continued to give him ACET but I wasn’t completely sure that he even needed it any more as I was noticing we were going longer and longer throughout the day without it. I decided to call Sick Kids (as they tell you to if you have any questions) and asked them if it was too soon to stop. The nurse on the phone was amazing, asked me about his recovery and advised that we should start weaning him slowly off it. She told me to keep the before bed dose and the dose first thing in the morning and drop all the others and then after we have done that for a day or two, drop the morning one and keep the bedtime one. And lastly, after another day if he doesn’t seem uncomfortable then drop the last one. By the Friday (9 days post surgery) he was off all the medication. He was in no pain whatsoever.

There were only two things that were still part of his recovery left to deal with. One being his napping and two being his stranger anxiety or “mommy-itis”. At this point he was sleeping at night in his crib, only getting up once or twice which is not so bad but naps were a real challenge. Before surgery he was napping twice a day 2 – 3 hours at a time, now he was napping 10 – 15 minutes at a time in the crib. As you can imagine it was difficult for me to deal with and I was completely exhausted from going up and down the stairs, rocking him and putting him down again and again but I wanted to persevere. He would fall asleep in the car but again only sleep for short periods of time but we were forewarned about that. Dr. Philips had told us “It is like bringing a newborn home again”. It sure was. I think I was more tired now than I was when Spencer was a newborn as he was always such a good sleeper but I knew it would pass as all the parents say it does.  The stranger anxiety was also hard because he still didn’t want anyone but me. He would go to Steve (my husband) for short periods of time but even people he was completely comfortable with before surgery might as well have been strangers as they were “strangers” to him now. Funny enough though, he was always comforted by his big brother Eidan. No matter what Eidan seemed to bring a smile to Spencer’s face and it warms my heart every single time! Dr. Philips also told us this would happen as he went through such a trauma and was surrounded by strangers who poked, prodded and did this terrible thing to him and it would take him time to forget.  I’m hoping this stage passes too as it would be nice for him to be himself again!