Dr. Salley (our family ENT and by far the most trusted) came out to let us know that the procedure went well and that he was going to be going to recovery. Then the nurse came out to get one parent to come back for Strong Man. Poor Chris, I am always the "one" but he knows I would go crazy having to wait any longer. When I got back there he was moaning and making the same noises as before. Struggling to breathe and having a hard time recovering, just like his last surgery. I had brief flashbacks of the nurses and doctors resuscitating his lifeless body and was praying hard that we wouldn't be reliving those events. He had a few strong apneas, but he maintained his heart rate and just required oxygen. I was instructed to try to feed him but I was apprehensive. I listened to the nurses and offered him the bottle, he was aspirating it so I stopped right away and put it in his tube. They gave him tylenol and he began to settle down. With his recent history of Morphene sensitivity we did not want to give him anything else. So many pain medications derive from Morphene and we were not going to risk it for the minimal pain of an adenoidectomy.
Admitted for observation, we went up to the peds floor where we were once again greeted by all of Josiah's "girlfriends". He loves his nurses and they have truly watched him grow up, he is more than just a patient, he is Josiah Cimburke! Once we got settled into his room I noticed his face getting really red, his saturation was dropping a bit but he still had blow-by oxygen. He was getting more red and his forehead looked as though it was swelling up. I went out into the hall to grab someone and they took his temp and checked his vitals and nothing seemed to odd, except the fact that he looked as though he had just got back from a week in the tropics! His nose, mouth and bottom of his ear kept their natural color. This was something we had never seen.
After talking to the doctors and anesthesiologists they figured out that it was a reaction to a drug called Succinylcholine that was used to open his airway. After surgery, when they removed the breathing tube, Josiah had what is called a laryngospasm. Basically his throat was closing up and he was able to get air out but not in. They administered the drug and he was fine, but the flushing was a reaction from it. He was given Benedryl through his IV and got his color back rather quickly. We are forever encountering new things with Josiah and I have a feeling he is going to continue to surprise us all of his life.
The next morning, we were discharged. His sleep study was scheduled for May 31st, I received a phone call from the hospital and took the appointment they offered. After arriving last night and spending 2 hours in the hospital, we learned that the sleep study was to fit him for the oxygen he would have at home. I told the nurse that we were not getting that because Josiah had surgery. This sleep study was to confirm that he was no longer having troubles breathing in his sleep. They called the doctor and after speaking with him we decided to cancel and reschedule his follow up sleep study for down the road. I do not see the purpose in putting him on a CPAP machine. Why disturb his quality of life, when he just had surgery removing the obstruction that was the culprit of his obstructive sleep apnea. He is still on his apnea monitor and we will be alarmed to any lengthy pause in breathing that he encounters. They could not do the follow up sleep study to confirm that surgery was a success because he just had surgery within the week. "Confirmation sleep studies" are not to be done until 6-8 weeks post op. So we will be going back for that at a later date. Looks like Strong Man will be on his apnea monitor til his 1st birthday, like his sister.
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