Surgery House, Sick House

It's about time I posted about our family and what we have been up to! There has been so much going on that I don't know where to start! Let's see, Burke had yet another surgery about three weeks ago. Yeah, can you believe it? He had sinus surgery to relieve his chronic sinusitis that he has had since February, and he got his tonsils and adenoids out!
His tonsils were so infected that they could have been the reason why he has been sick for so long, combined with his sinuses being so inflamed that there was no way for the infection in his sinuses to drain. This poor kid.

Recovery went okay. Some days were better than others. The first few days went really well, but then the scabs from the tonsils fell off and he had a few really miserable days with a big sore throat. About day 15 post op or so (last Tuesday) he spiked a temperature after I put him to bed. I measured the temp at 102.8! I don't think he has ever had that high of a temperature before! It came on so quickly and made his little heart race so fast. We were worried especially about his heart so we decided to take him into the ER.

When I walked into the ER I said frankly to the lady at the admitting desk. "This is Burke Johnson. He has a high fever and he has heart disease." She calmly and quickly asked his date of birth and had me sign something. Then again quickly and calmly she picked up a phone to contact the nurses in the back and said, "we have a 3 year old boy who has a high fever and his mom says he has heart disease." No more than 30 seconds later a lady came up to get me and we were back in the back getting check out. It was amazing. I had the ticket to get back into the ER quickly like never before. I could not believe their reaction. Professional, calm, and very quick. It was awesome. St. Luke's I commend you for how well you dealt with us in the ER that night. Thank you for caring for my child like I would want him to be dealt with.

So, we got admitted that night because after they ran some tests and took an x-ray. His white blood cell count was super high and they were concerned about what that meant. They wanted to keep him for 48 hrs to see if the cultures would grow anything or not. His fever never came back but they wanted to still keep him to watch him. By the middle of day two (not quite 48 hr yet though) Burke, in my eyes, was more than fine to be discharged. It took the rest of that afternoon to get all the doctors to agree to let him go. So, after 2 nights and two days we were released from the hospital. The next afternoon he was to go into the pediatrician to get the test results back. They came back negative! He must have caught some sort of virus that caused a random temperature. He is a little congested but is back to normal for the most part. He is his active crazy self again!!


Now onto Emma. She got her tonsils checked by the ENT due to her getting sick frequently enough. I thought too, since tonsils were infected in Burke, that probably they were the culprit in Emma's case. She enough her tonsils were infected and large as were her adenoids! Super fun.

She was due to have her tonsils/adenoids out on Oct. 1st. Burke was discharged from the hospital on Sept. 30 (Thursday) and Emma was to be at the Surgical center at 9 am on Friday morning. We just wanted to do our best to keep the ENT, the hospital and the pharmacy in business! It is our pleasure! You can thank us later.

Her surgery went very well and was quicker than expected. Her adenoids were huge and the tonsils were huge and very infected. Her tonsils were bigger than Burke's were. I got to see them- pretty gross. I got a picture on my phone but I don't know how to get them off my phone and onto the computer. So, sorry no pictures. We stayed in the post op recovery room for about an hour and then were released. Weird. No PICU admission like Burke. No oxygen required. No over night stay to make sure all is stable. This was totally different than Burke's surgeries. How nice it is to have a child who is healthy and does not require all the special medical needs. I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord.

Day one and two post op went great. Today though, day three post op, is a different story. She is hurting more today and won't take her pain meds. as well as the past few days. She is also not drinking as well. She is sleeping more today and resting more as well. Hopefully we can just get through this quickly. She is a trooper and reacted better the first few days post op better than we expected. Today though is more how we thought she would act- totally uncooperative! That's okay though. Things will get better. I feel so bad for her. I bet she is in so much pain. Having just been through this with Burke not long ago, her recovery is so different than his.

So, there you go. And update. Oh, I am sick again too. Sore throat and congestion. It is crazy how I usually get sick in a way that helps me be more empathetic to what the children are going through at the same exact time. Being a mama of two children who have both had surgery in the past two in a half weeks, and who have both been sick recently also, means that this mama is run down, exhausted and is running on little sleep. Happy days! But, we are alive and Burke is not in the hospital so we are grateful for our health, and to the Lord for watching over us through our tough time. He really has been there for us.