Last 24 hours..............HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

As of 9:30am this morning, Matthew was released from Children's National Medical Center. (Thank God) It took quite awhile to get to this point though.

Yesterday around 5:30pm:

Matthew was sleeping pretty much until about 5:30pm.....about 3 1/2 hours after surgery was completed. His "coddle of pain blockers" (for "down below") was starting to wear off and OH MY GOSH WERE WE AWARE OF IT! We were in a room in which they call a holding room. (1/2 way from operating table to regular room, sort of) Matthew woke up from a sleep just screaming for all he was worth! Apparently the block wore off, he wee weed and that's what started this. From 5:30pm to 11:30pm, different pain meds were tried.....fentanol (sp?), then Tylenol 3 w/codiene and finally morphine! Thank God for the morphine!!!! It kicked in and Matthew ended up falling asleep, as he was crying. All the walking, craddling, holding, hugging, riding in the radio flyer wagon in the world wasn't enough for our son's pain! God did we feel it, in many different and horrible ways! (Not like him mind you, but watching your child in pain and there isn't anything you can do about it is SOOOOOO VERY hard to watch! Especially as the nurses try to work on him because every bell, button, flashing light and knob on the IV thingie is going off!!! That and your child's heart rate fly from 95 to 185 at the drop of a hat and the IV thingie says in bright RED/yellow lights TACHY.) Blood oozing out of his nose and mouth because of being so upset as it is plus the palate doing this on top of it and your son panicking over that! OY!

TODAY:
Anyway, the nurses changed shifts and helped us so much! All the nurses helped us alot but the night nurses helped us greatly! It was just Matthew and mommy by then. Jackie and Rose helped us move to an isolation room for more privacy and to be closer to the nurses station. By midnight, Matthew was sleeping, semi tolerating the pain and going in and out of sleepyland. Mommy got some much needed sleep finally until more alarms went off when Matthew occluded his IV lines. After that, Rose was on board then and said for me to sleep and she will look after Matthew. It was hard to trust anyone with your child, but Rose was a mom too. A nurse and very forgiving and graceful with her child patients. (and parents) I said yes. 6am rolled around and Matthew was already up and "flirting" with Rose! Yep, my son was back! The nurses coming on at 6am were so funny towards Matthew. Said he was a little cutie! Yep, that's Matthew.

The breakfast of choice was apple juice and milk! For Matthew, this was a good feat for him! He drank both. Tried melted ice cream, but nope, didn't work. The doctor came in at about 9am and took out Matthew's "pack" inside his upper palate and it was sutured to his teeth to keep in place! Matthew did NOT like having that removed but he just kept saying OUWEE, OUWEE mommy. 4 clips and it was over! We could go home!!!

Surgery:
(His palate looks GREAT! NO HOLE! Matthew's palate has a VERY new and innovative graft inside it (grafting of a new plastic piece). Only a hand full of patients have this at CNMC! Matthew's fistula was definitely MORE INTENSIVE than anyone knew. His hole was a finger's worth from what you could see inside his mouth. BUT, once the surgeon got past that, he said it was HUGE and wide open! What China did? I have no clue, but I know what is there now!!!! He closed up the first layer of soft tissue, put the plastic in and then put another layer of skin. He said the body would absorb the plastic with no problem. This is why this part of the surgery took longer than expected.)

(The second part of the surgery took longer because Matthew's hernia was much more bigger than the urologist thought. She had to put it all back where it should be. More intensive then she thought as well. The rest of the urological issues went just fine.)

So, we are home, we are ok. Matthew is doing ok. He's on meds. Pain is there, but much better than before. Mom and Dad are ok. Becca is trying to be calm around Matthew. (easier said than done)

The mommy files