Kingdom of Chaos: One less useless piece

Fishing Pole (omg I have such a hard time with that name- I keep writing Drool Prince) had surgery last week..

Yet again.

It was just his adenoids this time. But we had to go to the Big Hospital because blah blah blah- taking out adenoids the normal way while having a pacemaker implanted = no go.

Incidentally, I was nice (with ulterior motives- I'll get into in another post) and txted his birth-uterus. I don't talk a lot about the kids bioparents much on here.. I guess I don't really have much to talk about. We have communications open (ie. they know my cell & po box & also know that if they want contact they have to initiate- I am not chasing them down) with all the birthparents but 1/2 don't choose to use it. Birth-uterus is one of those. After not hearing from her for 2yrs, she texted me out of the blue this winter. We shared several texts that day and I got my hopes up that she was changing and starting to show an interest. On that day, I promised to keep her updated on any medical stuff coming up with the boys. So I held to my promise and txted her a few quick txts letting her know that he had surgery, what it was for & that everything went well. I waited for a response.. and waited.. and well I'm not waiting any longer but I never got one. I know she only contacted me this winter because biodad bugged her (from prison) that she needed to have an interest in the boys. Funny that he knows more about them when he's locked up.. But hey he puts in the effort..

Ok, how did I even get off on that tangent?? I have no clue..

Anyhoo- due to Daddy Chaos being off work due to back issues the entire week prior to surgery, he couldn't take off the day of. So it was just Fishing Pole and I..

We got up before my party animal/ insomniac nieces were probably even in bed.. We had to travel 2 ½hrs and be there at 5:45am.

Needless to say, Fishing Pole stayed awake the entire way down.. chattering the entire way.. lol.

We got there, got settled into our room & started finding ways to entertain ourselves.. We took pictures.

Let's start with The Stare.. I have no idea what he was doing.. I told him to let me take a pic of him in his hospital outfit and this is what I got.. ha!

Just like almost every other surgery/procedure, we brought our best pal Lumpy with us. The nurse was nice enough to give Fishing Pole an extra pair of socks so that Lumpy could match :) I <3 nice nurses.

I had the brilliant idea.. Let's take pictures together! You can see how well he cooperated. I said, Smile pretty Fishing Pole.. This is what I get.. Sheesh!

And then the Child Life Specialist came in (a first for us) and let Fishing Pole make his very own mask to use when he went to sleep for surgery. He got to choose his favorite chapstick scent and maybe got a little carried away with the raspberry chapstick (see excessive pink inside mask). Then he got to pick which face stickers to put onto his mask. It was actually pretty fun. It's meant to help take away some of the anxiety that kids sometimes have when going into surgery.. Fishing Pole has done it many times and normally isn't the least bit anxious.. But he enjoyed making the mask & getting to bring it home :) At least it was something new to do, right?!

And then the sleepy dr came in. She gave us the normal spiel about anesthesia and asked if we wanted the versed that we normally have. After going back and forth for a minute, I decided to go ahead and give it to him. He has had it every single time with the exception of the surgery @ 3months old. It normally makes him a little more prone to giggle but also assures that he doesn't get too upset when leaving Momma.

This time, however, the boy got downright stoned. I'm not sure if she gave him a higher dose or he's just metabolizing meds differently now but Wowsas!! I actually videotaped him b/c he was sooo goofy! If I can figure out how to put it up, I will.. Sooo funny! The pic is him "smiling" for a pic.. lol. Poor baby.

And then away he went. Down the hall that I know so well and back into a room that I've never seen but he has seen many times. It seems weird to me that my child has been somewhere that has such an impact in his life, somewhere I've never been allowed entrance.

Surgery went smoothly. Adenoids were obstructing his airway by 50%! Guess it was a good thing we got those pesky things taken out !

Dr Heart met us down in recovery to check the pacemaker and make sure everything looked ok with it. Good news is that everything looks good! It's working!

Not as good news is that his heart rate seems to be trending lower and lower. He currently only uses his pacemaker about 1% of the time because it only kicks on when his heart rate falls dramatically and is at risk of pausing. There are talks of possibly upping the rate of his pacemaker since his heart rate is now lower overall than it really should be and not just during episodes.. We shall see..

So then finally, it's time to go home.