The Second Surgery
November 24th, 2004 was the day of Kota’s second surgery. The next day was Thanksgiving Day. The original plan was one week after the first surgery, which was Friday, November 19th. However, it was rescheduled to this day because of the availability of the operation room. Actually I think it was good for Kota. If it had been the original day, it would have been harder considering Kota’s recovering condition. He had some headache until a week after the first surgery, which was almost gone by this day.
As the last time, we arrived at the hospital at 5:50am. We were used to the admitting and pre-op procedure. This time a blood sample was taken before anesthesia, so a long and thick needle was inserted around the right wrist. It gave him big pain, but he barely endured. The needle was used for the following anesthesia as an iv line. At 7:20, he was taken to an operation room. I was not worried about the surgery. However, it was a little harder to see him off than the first time. I don’t know why. Then I moved to the waiting space and was given a pager by a Surgical Coordinator. As expected, there was no one else, because it was right before Thanksgiving Day. The last time had more people though.
At 1:15, we could meet Dr. Steinberg who just finished the operation. This time the surgery was done as direct bypass as expected. We were so glad to hear that the blood flow increased significantly.
The school entered into 5 days Thanksgiving weekend on the day. Our daughter, Sana, came to the hospital with my wife before noon. But her friend’s family was going to take care of our daughter for two or three nights. Based on the regret from last time, we decided at least one parent would stay with Kota all the time. Sleep over was the first time for our 6 years old daughter, but she seemed to look forward to doing that rather than worrying about. Probably she had seen her brother’s doing it many times. When I was meeting with the doctor, Sana’s friend and her mom came to pick her up.
It took a little longer before Kota was moved into PICU, and we met him at 3:15pm. He looked fairly conscious. He had ice chips and water, but brought up immediately. And one tooth fell out, which surprised the parents and the nurses. It might be because of either the morphine or the bleeding in his mouth that went into the throat. Actually, what he brought up was pretty much blood colored. Anyway, he looked even clearer after that.
My wife stayed with Kota, and I left for home to have some nap and back to the hospital at 9:00 pm. I was going to attend with him all the nights. Although there is no bed for parents to sleep in the PICU, there is also no limitation regarding the attendance. In most hospitals in Japan, even parents are not allowed to stay overnight, FYI. Kota complained about headache, and morphine was injected at 10:00 pm while smelling chocolate snack. He could sleep well after that.
After 6:00 am in the next morning, Kota had ice chips. A half amount of morphine at 8:00. There was a doctor(resident)’s round at 8:30. He said Kota could move upstairs today, which made him very happy. Kota had Tylenol at 9:30, and moved to the third floor at 10:40. He felt much better after leaving the PICU as expected, had vanilla ice cream a little, and played Gameboy with both hands. Today’s lunch was Thanksgiving special consisting of turkey, string bean, soup, pumpkin pie, and some pudding. Kota ate every item.
After sleeping for a while, the dinner was delivered, which included sauted chicken thigh, rice, boiled carrot, and salad. He seemed to have huge appetite, and ate most of those hungrily. He slept at 10:30pm. While he had occasional headache, generally speaking these were not as severe as the previous time. He actually looked much better. Two families of Kota’s friends kindly visited him during the stay. He was discharged four days after the surgery, which was Sunday, November 28th. Compared to Japan, the term of hospitalization tends to be much shorter here.