The night after the surgery K slept a lot and we were all so relieved and even thought the worst was over and by the end of the week we would be home....
DH came the day after Mr K's surgery. With the Covid situation and in hospitals there are many restrictions. No 2 parents can be there at the same time for more than an hour and no siblings were allowed to visit. This made it soo hard, especially for me because I couldn't leave his side even going to the bathroom I would rush no more than 1 min away. I had no way of getting any food for myself either. When DH came that night he brought me lots of snacks my clothes and My Sister packed me a great care package. A friend of mine even had her doctor cousin that works on another floor deliver me a coffee one morning !!! Truly soo blessed.
Gotta throw in a Tim’s coffee pic
Mr K was showing progress the next day by taking some walks down the hall... even though still in pain he would get out of bed and push himself.
He got some gifts to open and was feeling better and recovering even called some of his friends and cousins.
Sick kids even had a virtual call with some one the maple leafs. The hospital really goes above and beyond to make kids feel better. One of our doctors told K to request a Xbox system ha! But K was in no mood to play.
The nurses kept pushing us to walk a lot and log the amount of walks and for how long. This helps get everything back to normal after surgery.
K had no food in his system because he was vomiting and didn't have a bowel movement yet. Basically had no food since the night before we even got to the hospital.
One night after our walk, K looked soo pale, I knew something was wrong. I called my husband and told him K was sleeping at around 7pm and looked sicker.
That night his fever spiked.
His pain increased, his heart went into Tachycardia (rapid heart beat) He was screaming in pain and vomiting stomach acid. The Nurses were running in and out trying to calm him down. Giving him more fluids, more pain killers. K was soo sick that night, scariest night of my life. I texted my husband at 2am crying and I felt like every minute was hours long waiting for him to calm down..
The doctor came in around 2 am and asked to put a tube down K's nose to his stomach to help with his continuous vomiting of stomach acid. They also said it could be the reason he hasn't has a bowel movement and they suspect some complications.
K was in such trauma at this point, EVERYTHING INSIDE ME SCREAMED NO WAY! I made the decision based on my own gut and said NO. Not that night at least. I asked to wait until the morning and to wait and see how the day goes and that I would really need to prepare him mentally for that...
I Prayed soo hard for him to turn the corner.
This pic was snapped when I was about to go on my Instagram and give an update that morning.
But I couldn't even say a word without bursting into tears.
I prayed so hard to God and our guardian angels that night.
Every night I played white noise for him, The sound of the rain, to help soothe him. We did this at home most nights at bedtime so it comforted him.
The next morning K had his first bowel movement at 7am and THAT was needed for the Doctors to put a pause on the tube down his nose. I prepped K that morning that, that could be a possibility. He was not happy about it. Thankfully he didn’t need to have that done.
The doctors came in and decided to give him stronger antibiotics. They were concerned about some complications and sent him for another ultrasound and since it was over 5 days of not eating and barely drinking they decided to put him on the Nutrition IV.
This would give him some energy but also was hard on his veins. They had to change his IV to 3 different veins in the coming days.
All of our nurses were sooo amazing! They got to know K and his low patience when asking him the same questions over and over ha! We laughed sometimes when he rolled his eyes at us asking him over and over how he was feeling.
With the stronger antibiotics and stopping the strong pain killers, his vomiting subsided. After a full day of no vomitting. We were able to try eating.
K's choice for foods was peas and carrots and mashed potatoes. Our goal was to keep food down! Go to the bathroom regularly and get strength by going for walks!
K slept a lot every night once the meds kicked in. Only waking to use the bathroom. I finally moved from sleeping with one eye open on a chair to the cot bed in the room getting in a few hours at a time.
I had to measure and log everything, from food in to food out. Ha Grade 4 fractions came in handy, although I did text my friends for help haha.
Him feeling better gave me quick windows to run and grab a coffee and a gift card to the cafe that delivers to the floor. Honestly it’s so hard for parents when you can’t leave your child’s side. Not that I wanted food but obviously needed to keep myself healthy and on my own feet! Even finally taking a shower there as well.
We created a group chat with the 4 of us and this was the best. Everyday DH and M would call and we would have our daily laughs.
Mr M was having fun with his cousins too when DH came down to the hospital and even had his first sleep over! I was so relieved that he was having fun. He is such a big boy!
Both my boys grew up soo much from this experience.
When the ultrasound results came back they told us that Another abscess was formed and it needed to be drained.
8 days after the first surgery. K had to go in for this second procedure to drain the abscess. :( this was done by injected a syringe to drain it.
That morning we were both up early. K was sooo brave and ready for this to be over. He asked questions, took some deep breathes and was ready. The amazing nurses talked him through it all., They had to sedate him and the procedure was just an hour and he was out and feeling great. Whew!!!! The abscess was small and they were confident that he was healing and will only feel better from then on.
That day he ate soo much. The doctor said as long as we had a full day of checking off our goals then by the weekend we could go home!!!
Bring on the mashed potatoes!!!!! haha.
On the 10th night, the doctors came in and saw how well K was eating and his strength walking. They took him off the nutrition IV and started him on oral antibiotics. They said as long as he keeps meds down that Friday, day 11 we could go home!!! K and I were sooo excited!!!!
K even had happy tears! We cried that night on our last walk in the halls. We had soo many ups and downs. I was soo emotional. He was soo strong and went through soo much!
Friday morning! We were both up early! One doctor walked in at 6:30am and saw us packed and ready to leave. Ha! I asked all my questions and he looked over the last few days and said we were good to go!
We had to get his antibiotics so I left K on FaceTime with DH and ran to the shoppers downstairs to fill the prescription. I also dropped off our bags to the my car in the parking lot. Ran upstairs to get K and we slowly walked out of the hospital and drove home. It was soooo sunny outside. We opened the windows for fresh air and it was the best feeling ! We had happy tears driving home. Thanking God for every single thing!
We can’t thank Sick Kids Toronto enough , Dr Langer and his staff and all the nurses at Sick kids for their utmost attention and best care. I’m truly grateful. They took such good care of us.
When we got home DH had welcome home balloons and flowers for us.
Family came by with welcome home posters and delivered dinner to our door.
We had phone calls and messages and soo much love sent our way.
Sometimes life throws you some curve balls when you least expect it. Faith and Love got us through. Bringing our family even closer than ever before. Thank you for all your support through this difficult time. We are home and K is recovering perfectly.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to follow Mama T on Instagram @aka_mama_t
