Blog Post 2 of 3

Maddox’s surgery was scheduled for a Tuesday morning. The night before, we ate a hearty meal and all crashed on the couch. Eventually, we all went into our own beds for a day to be filled with a ton of emotions. That morning Nick and I were up, packed and got dressed then we got him up last. We quickly got him dressed and almost immediately out the door as he couldn’t eat or drink anything. Thankfully, it was a nice day out and the hwy was actually an easy flow of traffic. We get to the hospital, Nick and Maddox start checking in while I park the UAV. When I get in, we finish getting checked in and there was a phone call at the desk asking if we were there yet. The reception team said we were and they replied that they were waiting for us upstairs (great sign that they weren’t behind).

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We get up to the 4th floor and into his room. His room nurse comes in and we start the vitals and he jumps right on the scale. 29 lbs – man, we just can’t crack the 30 lb mark yet. Then she tries to the blood pressure cuff and in walks a few more people. He did not like the blood pressure cuff because it squeezed to hard, which meant that we didn’t get a reading at all (have to try again later) then we did the pulse ox and he was at 99-100%, awesome news.

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From here then all the doctors and other important people start walking in. Dr Johnson, his best friend, was the first one. He said hi to Maddox, explained to us what he was going to do, did a final look and was all good. Then I had Maddox introduce Blue Bear (in his new outfit) to Dr Johnson and Dr Johnson lit up thinking that was the coolest thing ever. He gave Blue Bear a high five and said he would see us later. Then Jason walked in and stated what he was in charge of for the surgery as far as the knock out gas, meds, etc and he noticed Blue Bear too. Then Dr Hunt walks in and goes through his set up.

Next is Amy from Child Life with her big bag of goodies. In her bag was a small box of stuff to help explain to Maddox the OR. She had a flip chart of Mickey and his adventure to and in the OR and what Maddox was to expect. Maddox was hooked to Amy as he never broke eye contact with her during the entire conversation. She showed him her hat, gown and slippers she had to wear and what Mickey was wearing too. Then she stated that Mickey was hiding in the OR and that they had to find him once he got in the room. She did an amazing job as the picture of the OR scared me with all the machines but Maddox was so clued into Mickey he didn’t even flinch. We finally got his blood pressure read and the surgical nurse came in and said it was time to go. The girls turned his bed into a race car, handed him an ipad and then he was gone. Legit, just like that. We didn’t hear him scream or anything down the hall, WHAT A TROOPER. And then there was mom back in the room biting her lip not to say anything to scare him or distract him, as he never looked back. And then tears fell down my cheeks.

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He was wheeled away at like 9 am and shortly after, Amy came back and said that Maddox is one of the cutest and coolest patients she had as he was awesome the whole ride down, got off his bed on and the OR bed by himself and was looking for Mickey just like they talked about. He did had a meltdown when they tried to put the gas mask on him but two big screams and he was out. Around 10, Dr Hunt came in with news. Tonsils and adenoids went good with minimal bleeding, ears were cleaned out and tubes were inserts. They did a nasal clean out and Dr Hunt had a lot to say about that, we’ll save that for another blog post because there is more to come of that discussion. After he left, 15 minutes later Dr Johnson walked in and said that he was all done, that he should be moving to the recovery room soon and that we should see him soon after that. Dr Johnson said no concerns on his end and that his part of the procedure shouldn’t even bug him compared to what Dr Hunt all did.

Shortly after that Jason walks in and stated that Maddox was amazing. He stated that he wasn’t really scared until the mask but he passed right out so he shouldn’t remember much and that he should be right up. Not to much later we heard him talking with the nurses and they were wheeling him back into our room. Poor kid looked like he was put through the ringer, but he wasn’t to upset and was very alert. The nurses got us all settled and after Maddox realized that he had to keep the IV in, the nurses started bringing the popsicles and since he didn’t have anything to eat, he crushed popsicles like they were going out of style. So it was just a little after 11 that he came back to the room and around 11:30 or so, the nurse said that the IV could come out at 1:30. At 12:30, he passed out and slept until 2, which was around the nurse shift change. It was then we learned that once the IV was out, we could go home but we let him sleep until 2. Then around 2:15/2:30pm we were packed up and heading home already.

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Overall, the team at St Vincent hospital was amazing, everyone stopped in to check in with us and was very thorough on their discussions with us and addressed any concerns that we had which was awesome. So the outfit that Blue Bear made such an impression with the entire team that they all signed it after they were done with their part of his procedures, which I think it pretty cool.

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Now to the recovery stage.