Post surgery, Alex has done pretty well in the waking hours, though today he was getting into trouble already, so the plan is to send him back to preschool tomorrow.
But as for meds and emotionally, we are having some real issues. I can't get him to take this codeine at all, well except the one time this afternoon I asked him if he would take it, I'd give him some ice cream. Did this and he took the codiene so fast I've not seen him take any meds that fast. But that is the only dose of codiene he's had since yesterday afternoon, though it's the 4th try at giving it to him and 3 of the 4 resulting in him spitting it pretty much all back out.
If he's up and awake, he's pretty good about taking otc motrin so for daytime we are good. Tonight however, was not fun and I don't think it's over yet, even though it's almost 1am, since he's wailing and fussing every 20-30 minutes yet.
After Mike got home, I went to bed and slept for 3 hours since I was up until 2am last night and got up at 6:30 this morning. Alex took all of a 20 minute nap today, which will be explained in the next discussion after the meds. I woke up at 8pm, where Mike was just putting the kids to bed, and stayed up so I could give Alex his midnight dose of something, since Mike gave him otc motrin at 7:30.
Well it wasn't long and at 11, Alex woke up coughing, sputtering, and crying in pain, moreso than he had last night, so I tried the codiene route. First mistake there... I asked him if he'd take the codiene if I gave him some more ice cream. Well he was sleepy and didn't give a bunny's butt about ice cream. So tried talking him into taking it. he hemmed and hawed and didnt want it- wanted to watch tv. I took him into the living room as he was fussing and crying and was trying to keep him from waking up Mike and the girls (thank goodness that when well, our kids can pretty much sleep through bombs going off).
So tried to get him to take it and no dice. So tried holding him and making him take it, of which he promptly threw his head back and spit it all out and it ran backwards and around his eyes. So I put him down and ran to the kitchen to get a wet paper towel to get it out of his eyes and the stickiness off his face and he wanted no part of that. *more screaming here* Since that was a bomb and not knowing how much he actually got down him for sure, I now couldn't give him any tylenol. So I said come on, you are going back to bed, which was met by another fit and screams of "I want to watch tv!!!!"
I get him in bed and since Alex has always been so good at taking medicines, espeically the children's tablet motrins and tylenols, thought I'd try a motrin tablet. So I get one and give it to him to take. He plays with it, and so forth, and with having the lights down, I couldnt see him very well at all. Post coming up next about this issue... I thought he'd taken the tablet as he laid back and pretty much went to sleep or seemed like it. I left the room to go say goodnight to the couple of people I'd been talking with before all this started, only to be jerked to attention by his screaming and crying again 5 minutes later. I went back in and he's coughing and sputtering yet again and he has that tablet in his hand. Arrrghhh.
I try coaxing him and getting him to take it and he hems and haws around with it, which with crying he woke Mike up who came in and tried to help too. Finally I had enough and was frustrated enough I put the ultimatum on him to put it in his mouth or else. And I was ready to follow through if he decided to call my bluff if I needed to, as I was fed up. (Trust me, I've been VERY cautious these days of what I say I'll do, as he's been testing how far he can go and has been calling my bluff a lot lately). He put it in his mouth, but then wouldnt do anything with it. It wasn't an easy melt tab so it sat there as he fussed and cried some more. He wouldnt do anything with it and screamed all the more, which brought Mike out of bed again as I was getting a dixie cup of water. Mike takes off back to bed, and Alex continues to get madder. Since he's screaming and his mouth is wide open (he's trying not to bite the tablet) so I stick my finger in and crush it against his teeth, then tip his head back and pour some water in, of which he had to swallow it and then he realized it was gone and began to settle down, though he was still upset.
Now for the sleeping thing... Since the recovery, where he woke up to Mike and I being nowhere around and 4 nurses holding him down and shoving a needle into his ankle, he has been absolutely been paranoid of going to sleep and if someone touches him while asleep or groggy. Yesterday and today I moved him after he fell asleep, as he went to sleep on his belly and was whimpering in pain, so moved him off his face and propped up a bit. When I took a hold of him, it resulted in an immediate screaming fit and him fighting me, not realizing it was me and trying to get away.
He has always been really good about laying down for naps and going to sleep right away. Right now, he's doing everything he can to keep from going to sleep. Whining and crying he doesn't want to take a nap, doesn't want to sleep and so forth, even though he's just plain exhausted. Then after all the med thing tonight, he was still upset and I stood there and rubbed his back and so forth and he settled down and closed his eyes. I went to leave the room and he immediately began to scream. Then we repeated this, where he actually dozed off, and I made it halfway to the playroom and he started screaming again. So I went in and sat down on his floor and while he was just soooo worn out, he kept fitfully waking up and looking panicked and upon seeing me sitting there would settle back down and doze off again. it took 45 minutes for him to truly fall asleep and up until about 5 minutes ago, he would wail and cry out every 20 minutes or so.
So I'm really frustrated that he is just scared to death right now as a result of all this and is scared to take the medicines, which he's always been so good about. :( I'm not mad at the nurses or anything, they were doing what they were supposed to and had to. I'm just worn out and frustrated as a mom because I don't know how to make it better for him. I'm also really frustrated with Dr. Phillips office as I called and left a message on his nurse's voice mail at 1pm and didnt hear a word back from them.
I called because Alex is just soooooo congested/stopped up in the nose. He seems ok beyond the nose, from what I can tell, but there's just clear snot completely blocking his nostrils and running down his face. We are supposed to use the Afrin to help as a decongestant, but there's so much gunk there that there's no way it's even getting up into his sinuses to help with that. The aftercare sheets say not to blow his nose until the surgeon says it's ok. Since I don't know how well things are and how they did the turbinate reduction (didn't think to ask what method Dr. Phillips used in the after surgery meeting) I'm afraid to try to put a bulb syringe up there and suction things out. The sheets also mention that you can use sudafed, but these sheets seem to be geared more towards adults than kids, so I'd called to try to get some suggestions on what to do with this nasty nose. I now want answers on what we can do on the meds front too, since the codiene works best for him, but he won't take it.
Mike told me, and I agree, to call Dr. Phillips office in the morning and if I don't hear back from them in an hour after calling, I'm going to call our ped's office, since she knows we can be trusted and is down to earth and all about keeping the kids comfortable. He's gonna need something tomorrow at preschool, thats for sure!
Alright, enough ramblings from the frustrated Mom. I think I may wait on that second post too on the lights til morning as well, as I need to be smart about this and go get in bed until 6:30 when Mike leaves for work. He gets me up so I can make sure Katie is out the door for school.
Will update tomorrow!
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