Surgery & Recovery

It's been almost 2 months since Jesse had surgery, although it feels like it was a lifetime ago. It's amazing to me how much easier things are once surgery is done. I still worry from time to time about his lumps and bumps, or if he hits his head, or if he'll need another surgery later on, but I don't eat, breathe and live cranio 24/7 anymore.

Aug. 23, 2011 - Surgery

Jesse was having trouble going to sleep for his morning nap, so we decided to go for a drive so he could get a little sleep since he almost always falls asleep in the car. As you can see, it worked!

We arrived at the hospital sometime around 9:30 am. After registration, we were sent back for vitals and then we waited.

At around noon I handed him over to the OR nurse. Until that time I had held myself together pretty well, but as soon as I walked out of that room I really lost it. I think that was the hardest part of this whole journey. Since Jesse's diagnosis I had wondered a thousand times over if he really had to have surgery... that maybe it's not that bad after all... what if we just didn't do it? But when I handed my baby over to that nurse, I knew that there was no turning back. This was going to happen.

At around 1:30 pm, we received a page. We went up to the desk and we were told that the neurosurgeon wanted to speak with us. My heart just skipped a beat. It seemed way too soon for him to be finished, and I was so scared that something had gone wrong. But I couldn't have been farther from the truth. 

After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, but in reality was probably only about 5-10 minutes, the neurosurgeon came in. He said that things couldn't have gone any better and that Jesse has a beautiful brain. Jesse's vitals were extremely stable and he had no unusual blood loss. He let us know that the craniofacial surgeon was starting the reconstruction of his forehead and brow bone and should be done in about an hour.

At around 2:30 pm, we were paged again. This time to speak with the craniofacial surgeon. He took some time to come in to talk to us. We probably waited about 15-20 minutes. But when he finally came in, he told us that everything went great and mentioned that Jesse now looked more like me. He said recovery should be fast and he should only have to spend 3 nights at the hospital. 

The surgery only lasted about 2 1/2 hours when they expected it to take 4 hours.

It wasn't until around 4 that we were told one of us could go back and see Jesse in recovery. 

Jesse was in recovery for another 2 hours. The room he was suppose to be moved to was not ready for him, so it was around 6 pm before we were moved into a room.

Hospital Stay

Jesse did so well. His left eye never did completely swell shut, and I was so thankful for that. The peak of swelling was on the day after surgery. 

One day post op, Jesse was smiling!

Two days post op, he was laughing, smiling & playing.

And by day three, he was almost back to
his old self it seemed. And we went home that afternoon!

He had a few issues. He had a couple vomiting episodes, but that was attributed to the antibiotics. He had been on antibiotics right after he was born while in the NICU and had a history of not tolerating them well. He also had diarrhea pretty bad, but he was taking in a lot of fluids, so they were not worried. And I knew that was from the antibiotics as well. They gave me the option of staying at the hospital or taking him home and of course I told them I would rather take him home. The antibiotics were stopped on Friday afternoon, so I knew he would be just fine once they were out of his system, which he was.

Recovery

I called the doctor on Saturday because he kept rubbing his eyes, especially the left eye. The CFS's fellow was on call and she said to get some Visine and to immobilize his elbows so he couldn't scratch his eyes anymore. He was fine the next day.

The Sunday after surgery he developed a high fever and we were sent to the ER after a call into the surgeon's office. They ran a bunch of tests, had to draw blood again, and sent us home assuming it was viral as his blood work showed no infection. At the follow up appointment on Wednesday, the surgeon said that many babies develop a fever after surgery and they are not sure why. Jesse never acted sick. The only reason I even checked his temp was because he felt really hot to the touch. We went back to the ER a second time on Thursday because his right eye started to swell again. We were told that it had nothing to do with the surgery and that he just had an eye infection. But other than those 2 issues, Jesse's recovery went really well and I couldn't have asked for it to go any smoother than it did.

And now, one month post-op, he is back to his normal self. Laughing and smiling all the time and sleeping better than he did before surgery. He's such a happy kid and so strong. He is amazing.