Not a Halloween Mask

Jamison had successful removal of the random chalazions yesterday. Thank you to all you prayed for the surgery! All of the pictures that we took were with our phones since I wasn't about to stick my huge camera in Jamie's face post-op.

Before surgery they gave him a wonderful medication that doped him up nicely. He SAT STILL. He was QUIET. I was about to steal some of the stuff for use at home. He was in a great mood most of the morning, just complained (a lot) that he was hungry.

The surgery didn't even take an hour. My sister has gone through this kind of thing with her kids (especially Ruthie) a time or two so she had already enlightened us that coming out of the anesthesia is a tough process. This was nothing compared to Maddie's heart surgery but it definitely brought back memories of THE WORST NIGHT OF MY LIFE.

When they brought us back to recovery they had two orderlies holding Jamison down and he was screaming. Well, screaming might be an understatement. Do you remember what the velociraptors sounded like in Jurassic Park? Yeah, he was doing that. With no words - just screeching at the top of his lungs and kicking. His eyes were swollen shut and he had bloody tears. It was very traumatic to watch.

There was nothing we could do to calm him down until he came out of the anesthesia. I just held him on my lap while Brian held his arms so that he wouldn't pull his IV out. We did this for an hour and a half before he screamed himself to sleep. We could tell he was coming out of it when his screaming evolved from no words to "my eyes" to "my eyes hurt" to "my eyes won't open." Progress!

This picture was taken about 2 hours after the surgery. His eyes were still swollen shut but they looked MUCH better than in the recovery room. This would have been very appropriate for the day before, Halloween.

When they moved us to a single room (thanks to his hysteria) somehow his IV came out; but we didn't realize this until blood had pooled up everywhere. So thankful he couldn't see that! I had to focus on my happy place since I have a slightly negative reaction to blood. This whole time Brian was cleaning things up, getting directions from the staff, and helping me and Jamie get comfortable. I would not have been able to handle yesterday without him! I was so focused on Jamison that I wasn't able to do anything else.

Brian tried incredibly hard to put cold compresses on Jamison's eyes so that the swelling could go down and he would be able to open his eyes. As much as Jamie complained about wanting to open his eyes he hated the compresses more. So we moderated our technique to one compress at a time and a popsicle to make him be quiet.

Seven hours after the surgery he was spider man again and one eye could open. This morning, both eyes are open but there is still some minor swelling. He is acting himself - jumping on things he shouldn't jump on, trying to go outside in 40* weather with no coat, shoes, or hat, and running around the house with his superman cape on. Why, oh WHY, didn't I swipe some of that stuff that doped him up?!?!?