Chaos and Cupcakes

I had hoped that the way Taylor felt on Thursday when he came home from the hospital would be an indication of the rest of his recovery (he was feeling pretty good). Unfortunately, it wasn’t. His discharge papers stated that the worst days would be days 3 and 4. But for him the downturn started on day 2. Jared and I had tickets with his work to go see The Dark Knight. I asked Taylor if he was feeling well enough for a car ride over to Grandma’s house and he nodded his head yes. So we packed up the kids and I packed a bag for the kids including books, drinks, pudding, and oatmeal for Taylor and he also took his laptop with him. When we went back to my mom’s after the movie, Taylor was just laying lethargically on her bed, burning up with a fever. He had no interest in trying to eat or drink, was on the verge of tears, and was just so miserable. My mom said that all of a sudden he had just started feeling so bad and she felt him and he was so hot. I felt awful. We gave him another dose of his liquid Lortab and Jared carried him out to the car. We stopped at McDonald’s on the way home to get him a milkshake. Taylor took one sip before falling right to sleep. Jared then had to run into AT & T to pick up his iPhone that had just arrived. Taylor slept the whole time. When we got home I gave him some Children’s Tylenol for his fever and settled him on the couch, trying to get him to drink more milkshake or some water. He didn’t want anything. I checked his discharge papers and it said a fever was normal in the 24-48 hours after surgery and to call the doctor if it went over 102 degrees. It wasn’t quite at 102, thankfully. So Taylor just slept on and off and I forced him to drink when he was awake. He woke up on Saturday morning in a lot of pain again and indicated that he wanted his pain medicine. We know the pain is bad when he actually wants the Lortab as he hates the bitter taste of it and we usually have to force him to take it. The past 24 hours have been the same for him painwise, although his fever seems to have pretty much abated. He can’t speak at all so he writes us notes to let us know what he wants. He is getting hungry, though, and is getting tired of liquids and soft foods. Last night he ate some Rice Krispies made soggy with chocolate milk and a soft meatball (my neighbor brought us some of her fantastic homemade meatballs and a ton of other yummy stuff) cut up into tiny pieces.

I feel so awful that he is going through so much pain and discomfort. The doctor had said at the pre-op appointment that the younger kids are, the easier the recovery is. He said, however, that age 7 is about the cut-off for the easier recovery so it would be a toss-up as to if Taylor’s recovery would be easy or painful. But after the surgery he said Taylor’s tonsils were so huge and had to come out. His adenoids were also moderately large so it was good to get them out, as well. So I keep telling Taylor that he really needed this done and it will be so much better in the long run for him. But I still remember how horrible I felt 12 years ago when I got my tonsils out. My big fear with Taylor getting his out is that what happened to me would happen to him. On about the 4th night (I think) of my recovery I woke up in the middle of the night with my pillow and shirt soaked in blood, with more blood gushing from my mouth. I ran to my bathroom and watched the sink fill with blood. I couldn’t yell and so I banged on the wall until someone woke up and heard me (my bedroom was on the ground floor and everyone else was either on the 2nd or 3rd floor). My parents rushed me to the ER where my ENT came and suctioned and cauterized my throat. Apparently, I am quite prone to hemorrhaging. So because of my experience, I have had Taylor sleep in our bed and will have him do so at least until after his follow-up appointment on Tuesday.

So… if you wouldn’t mind, would you include this sad, sweet boy in your prayers for the next couple of days?

Tags: Taylor

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