All in all, things went very well. So much for all my fretting! We arrived on Tuesday morning at 6:30 am and waited. Soon the girl that shared the room for one night (a 2 year old Downs Syndrome girl and her mother) came and we all waited. He had some medicine to make him relax and if I could figure out how to upload the video and post you would see how funny a 3 year old is...he acted like he was really on something. Giggling and not able to control his arms or legs. It was a hoot. The little girl was first up for surgery and it was about 8:10 that they came to the room and wheeled Niki to the elevator (he thought that was fun riding his bed in the elevator). In this picture he was a bit serious since he wasn't sure what was going on.
They had me kiss him goodbye in the hall and they took him into surgery. I didn't even cry or anything. Hooray for medicine! (Can I have some?!)
Then I had to wait (with the other mother) for a while. He was actually under anestesia from 8:15-8:45 (I read the chart). They came and got me while he was in recovery and was beginning to come out of it. He was crying and it was the part that just made me feel so guilty (for agreeing to put him through this) and sad to see him suffering. Eventually when I told him fairy tales (3 bears etc.) he fell alseep and so we stayed there until 10:45 for monitoring. Then they took him back to the room.
He was subdued that day and they kept him on pain medication and antibiotics. He wasn't allowed to have anything to drink (not to mention eat) until after 2 pm. Then he got some push-up pops. He gobbled down 4 in a matter of minutes. I am sure he got tired of the soft foods (puddings, white bread etc) but he endured it. The 4th day they let him have a bit more and some classic lines: when he saw a pat of butter on his plate he got all excited and as he opened it said "A present! They got me a present!" another one is once he he told me "The pudding doesn't make you sneeze!" (What is his mind thinking?)
The thing he hated the most was the IV in his arm. He would cry and tell me to call the doctor and get it out. Especially in the night this would bother him.
The 2nd day after the roomate left it was quite nice. We had our own room and I felt more relaxed. I brought cars, painting, playdough, beads, books and a variety of other things to keep him occupied. The best thing of all was the laptop with DVDs. He doesn't watch kids movies but does like to watch the BBC shows so we recorded a bunch and that is what he watched. Also he loves Dora and Signing Times.
Here he is with the "boy doctor" (really he was a nurse, but I didn't feel like trying to sort that with him).
It was a long 6 days but I finished a great book (Midwives) and watched a bit of CNN (kept up to date with the election propaganda) and a few other interesting shows too.
A few friends visited--and I appreciated that more than they can know! Günter brought Jenna every day too. Things got a bit loud then...
One day Niki asked why Oma and Opa didn't come to visit so I had Günter call and they drove 1.5 hours (one way) to see him for 40 minutes--the love of a grandparent!
This hospital experience was so different than Jennas. I was so traumatized at the end of the week with her, but Niki's almost seemed like we were at a hotel or something. They hardly bothered us and we had good food. The only thing that annoyed me was the 9 year old kid in the next room kept stealing our icecream bars. We put our name on it and eventually told the nurses when he still would take them. His own family should have brought something. Oh well. The great thing is that they let a parent stay with the child (for free) when the child is under 9 years. So I got to hang out with him and give him medicine, food and generally wait on him.
The doctor came and said Niki was healing well and we could go home on Sunday. Yipee!
Now I am doing loads of laundry and trying to get things ready for leaving on my holiday on Wednesday. This is my yearly holiday without kids or husband. I am going to the Turkish Riveria for a week on the beach and will read and relax to my hearts content. Call it my mental health break!
So expect me next post to be after I return on 5 Nov!
This morning I was so resistive--I didn't want to have the day to start. As I laid in bed I felt what children must feel when they simply are too afraid and refuse to do what they are told, no matter what the consequences. I has a flashback to when Niki had his adenoids out earlier in the year and how traumatic it was to see him fight the anestesia and after the surgery how he was aggressive. I hated seeing the breathing tube in and blood caked around his mouth and nose. I never wanted to do it again, and here I am...doing it again. When Günter left I was in that state of mind, but my mother mode kicked in and I got up and got Jenna ready and off on her bus.
Then Niki and I headed over to St Johannis Krankenhaus (the hospital). The last time I was there was for my 5th D&C--I knew the surgery team and OB/GYN only too well. That alone is a traumatic memory. I tried not to think about all this as I drove up.
I knew the back entrance (by the cafeteria) and took Niki through there. We found the office where we checked in. Then she sent us to the anesteologist. The lady took us to a small room and we went over all the risks of anestesia. Then she took Niki's blood.
After about the 4th vile Niki started freaking out. He was crying and wanted to go home. He was so upset. I just held him but was feeling tense myself. Then she finished and we went up to another room. She was going to take the shunt out because we were not staying tonight at the hospital but I asked if she would just bandage it. She didn't want to but mercifully the chief came in and he said we could (that is one less trauma for Niki tomorrow). Then as he was bandaging it Niki lost it altogether and started vomiting. I guess his is his father's son (if you remember this...). We got that all cleaned up and went up to see his room.
Yes, he was feeling as bad as he looks in the bed. After about 30 minutes some color came back into his face. We will be sharing the room with a 2 year old Down's Syndrom girl named Fiona. The great part is they let the mother stay in the room. I get to sleep in the bed right next to him and the other mother is with her child in the room too.
After a while I showed Niki the bathroom and took a little tour of the ward and then left. I had some errands to do and there is a lot to get done around the house since I won't be home for the week. Normally they keep them 7 days but if he has no complications they may release him on Sunday.
I won't be posting until I am home again. Please keep us both in your prayers!
This boy totally cracks me up. Recently a friend loaned me the DVD "Dan in real life"--real cute. One of the songs became an "ear worm" and I couldn't get it out of my mind so I kept singing "Let my love open the door to your heart". Niki then asked me about where the door is to the heart and thought it was his belly button. Then he went on to tell me his heart got out and ran down the street.
This morning when he was going to the bathroom he also asked me if pee was slippery. He asked, "If pee gets on the potty do people slip in?"
Another one..."What is inside your feet?"
I made taco salad for dinner and he called "the compost heap".
All day long this goes on. It is hysterically funny.
I knew it was coming, and it has arrived. Niki has officially moved into the "why" stage. "Why do we have doors?" "Why is Jenna crying?" "Why did you say that?" "Why do we have stars and moon?"
He is an incesant talker anyhow, and this would be fine except he asks the same questions over and over.
"WHY won't mama answer your questions?" Ha Ha Ha.
When you are Niki...everything is associated with a car! Recently he announced to me that "if you don't know where to go, you can use a map or a GPS!" Just the other day I told him he was smart and he said "Yes! I am a smart car." Every reference is about cars.
Right now his favorite is convertables. A friend gave us a Polly Pocket car with a magnet roof. He loves it and slides the roof on and off. He isn't interested in Polly Pocket or clothes etc, just the car! So of course I am on ebay looking for a convertable car that the roof actually goes up and down and I found a Polly Pocket one. It is in pink, and that makes Günter nervous, but what can I do?
Some years ago we had a 10 year old foster daughter and she LOVED to play store--I think she missed some of those things in her development. We actually used it as part of the incentive program to get her to do homework and household chores. I had a sheet with how many point each thing was and she would spend it or save it up to buy a more expensive thing at the store. We had things in the store we wanted to do with her (like paly a game of her choice, go out to dinner etc). but her favorites was a spoonful of marshmellow creme and being able to take her base pass for the day to school.
Recently Niki has initiated that game. He takes the cash register and a lot of coins and sets up things on the coffee table and "sells" them to us. Mostly everything is priced at 7 and we only pay one dollar (one coin). He can do this for a long time and says "Krista, come to my store!" Sometimes I get Jenna to play it with him but soon he gets frustrated because she doesn't follow his rules. As it is, he expects me to take all the things "home" so all the toys are around me by the computer right now.
It is fun to see him find these games and model after things in his every day life.
Yesterday was a horrible day for me. All week I was nervous about Niklas's health and decided to take him to the Pediatrcian on Friday morning. When we walked in, and were waiting to check in he began his coughing and the doctor standing there said "I know HIS diagnosis!" Then we were asked to stay in the infection room rather than the regular waitingroom (at least it had nicer toys there).
Once the Chief doctor came in he was quite serious and said Niki has this. Great. Lets add that to the bronchitis and pnemonia, ear infections and tonsillitis. The poor kid, not only does he have a barking cough but big black circles under his eyes from not being able to sleep or breath too well. The doctor was truly worried and made up all the paperwork and sent us to the hospital in Kaiserslautern. He gave Niki a steriod suppository (Prednisone).
I didn't plan on it going that direction (We usually walk out of his office with antibiotics, and that is what I thought would happen again.) I had some errand to do--including meeting people on the military base that bought some stuff from my on-line yard sale. So we went to get things done first.
BTW, I don't think I will do the yard sale thing again unless it is a big item. People say they will buy things but don't show up(and I listed it as sold and lose other buyers), or show up 2 hours past the apointed time, or they don't have space in their car for the large items (go figure) or the right amount of money. Plus some people that came to my house walked around and would see the piano and say they wanted to buy it...Um, everything I own is NOT for sale... I think in the future I will stick to giving away stuff. Only one of the 4 people showed up for the meeting.
Afterwards I thought that I better go pick up Jenna since I doubted that we would be done at the hospital (which I thought they were just going to do another Xray and blood work) by the time her bus would take her home. So I picked her up and stopped at Burger King for lunch for the kids and we took it to eat at the hospital (I rightly assumed there would be a lot of waiting time).
The first real aggrivation was finding it. It is in an obscure place in the city center. Once I did locate it I had trouble finding parking. I tried to park along the street but you must buy a ticket at the little stands along the road and you must have correct change (and I only had a bill). So I finally decided to go to the parking garage. Then I got the kids out and discovered Jenna had made poop and had to change her diaper. Then Niki had to go potty and I worried we would make it in time so he wouldn't pee his pants. I pulled them along and tried to find the Kinder Klinik on the small campus as fast as I could! After averting the pee crisis, I took the paperwork to the front desk and they instructed me I must go register (insurance) at another building. I was surprised since I didn't expect this and they said that likely he will be on IV antibiotics over the weekend and have surgery early next week and have to stay another 7 days beyond that. I was sick with anxiety at that point. I went back out to the car and had trouble finding my parking ticket. You have to have that to place in a machine and pay for it before you drive out. I finally did find it.
I called Günter and he was in a meeting in Frankfurt and wouldn't pick up the phone. I tried 3 times then got very mad. I looked for phone numbers to call some friends locally, but had nothing in the car. I was very aggitated!
I drove out of the parking garage and went to park along the street only to find out that I needed not only 1 euro coins but also a 50 piece--the machine doesn't make change! I ran to a shop (left the kids in the car) to get change. When I was coming back I saw someone leave a space open right by the hospital so I turned the car around to park there. Once I arrived, it was taken. Since it was one-way streets I had to go around the area to get back to the street I originally went on and all the spots were taken by then. I had to park several blocks away at the bottom of the hill.
While we registered Jenna was eating her cheeseburger and Niki was playing with the glass doors to the room, and I was trying to understand the receptionist (who only spoke German) while watching the kids and giving information about Niki and the insurance. It was nerve wracking to me! Then I took the kids back to the Kinder Klinik and we were seen by doctor but Niki's cough was much better (I assume from the steroid).
I then had to take the kids to the ENT clinic and we waited over 1 hour (with no toys in the waiting room) to be seen. Did I say I was on my last nerve? When we were seen the doctor asked if I wanted him to have a tonsilotomy or tonsilectomy and if we wanted it there or with Dr. Baker (his normal ENT). I really didn't know. I mean no one was telling how bad it was and if it was emergent. I knew his airways were problematic, but that was all. Then they asked if I had given him ibruprophen. Yes, for his fever. Then she said they can't give surgery for 4 weeks since the last time it was taken. You have got to be kidding! I was upset. She went and got the chief doctor and he explained that there is a high risk of complications with bleeding and they won't do it. I lost it about then. I said, well if he dies because he can't breath, isn't that a greater risk! He checked his tonsils and said even though they are extremely enlarged, there is enough space for air to go through and he won't suffocate. How comforting. If he is so sick the Pediatrician sent us there, and they can't do anything to treat, why were we there? The kids kept touching the tools and going around the room and I had trouble concentrating, and weighing my options while the doctors talked. Several times they asked the kids to be quiet--yeah, right--like they listen to anyone.
That is the time I made up my mind we are not staying. I went back to the Child doctor and explained it all and said that I didn't think he needed to stay in the hospital if he could have the antibiotics orally at home. I talked him into it and he gave me a very high level to give as well as the steroid (Prednisone) and a special medicine for coughing.
As I was taking the two tired, one sick child to the car, all I could think of was Jenna's hospitalization and how stressful it was trying to keep her still in a bed (with an IV line in) when she is so active and there was nothing to do. I was so grateful we avoided this, for now. I felt liberated!
I still don't know what to do besides the medicines. I will call our regular ENT on Monday and tell him the situation. I wish I had someone to help me decide if we should have a partial or full tonsilectomy and tubes in his ears. What is the best? I don't want to continue having all these problems with his health and don't know if it will help or further hinder things.
After the kids went to bed I just wanted to vegetate, which I did by watching a movie. I hope I can get my equalibrium back. Niki will have to be home the next week while he is on the medications, so I won't have any freedom in the days to come. Being a mom is so much harder than I thought it would be.