After the first surgery
Saturday, November 13th, the day after the first surgery, I arrived at PICU at 5:50am. Kota was already awake. It was no wonder because he slept a lot the day before. He said he had a little water during the night.
The nurses alternate at 7:00 am and parents have to be out of PICU for 30 min. When I was back at 7:30, I was asked for waiting 30 more minutes because the next nurse did not show up. Kota was sleeping at this moment, so I was not able to let him know about this extension. When I returned at 8:00, there was a new nurse and it seemed that Kota was crying. As I heard later, he just became sad. But I guess the chemistry between he and the new nurse might not have matched very well. The breakfast was broth, apple juice, lemon jelly, and lemon lime jelly. Kota took Tylenol at 8:40 to deal with some headache.
At 9:00, three residents of Dr. Steinbergfs lab came to check Kota, saying that his blood pressure looked a little high, but he would be able to move to the third floor (general ward, PICU is on the second floor). That was good news because Kota wanted to get out of PICU ASAP. At 10:00, we happened to find Yu-Gi-Oh program on the TV, and Kota watched it for a while.
At 10:30, five doctors who were different from previous ones showed up. One doctor explained to others about Kotafs disease and progress so far. It looked like a kind of conference. Kota slept again. Around 11:30, another nurse came to prepare for Kotafs move. Some of the iv lines among as many as six were removed, which made him comfortable. The instruments connected to him were detached, too. We started to move at 11:50. Kota was carried on the bed going through the hallway and elevator to the third floor.
The room at the third floor was a single room, the same as we stayed for angiogram. Soon after we got in, lunch was delivered. Chicken noodle soup was so good that Kota had a lot. And a big cheese burger! It was impossible for Kota to eat it on the next day of the surgery cutting almost 4 inches on his head. So I respectfully ate it.
Since he had headache after the lunch, we asked for a pill of Tylenol. However, because this was childrenfs hospital they had only syrup or flavored chewable pills. Those artificial flavors always make him feel vomiting. So he only accepts regular capsules or pills. While it is being looked for, he slept. Probably because he missed the chance to have Tylenol at this time, he woke up after one hour with terrible headache. He could not swallow a pill because of crying. Therefore, morphine was injected, which worked well for the pain. Kota actually does not like any iv, because whenever something (even just heparin) was injected into his vein, it smells bad around the back of nose. So he said he would even accept the pain rather than getting an iv shot. Since then we give him something that smells good in front of his nose when he has to have iv injection. At that time, he also had minor TIA (numbness in his left hand), which lasted for several minutes.
There were more things happened during the first two days after surgery, however, overall he gradually recovered well. He started the practice of walking the next day, and was discharged from the hospital 4 days after the surgery. That was amazing!
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