Day 1
Our bovine humidifier saves the day--and night. I had purchased this Crane 1-gallon cold mist humidifier because I'm rabid about having a humidifier on at night during the fall/winter and two of our three Honeywell warm mist humidifiers conked out. I was going to buy hundred-dollar humidifiers before I saw these cute Crane ones at Target and did some research on them. All of the versions (frog, cow, penguin, pig, Hello Kitty and more, each for about $34) got great reviews, and so I got the cow one to test it out.
Glad I did, because it's really helping my 10-year-old son with his recovery from surgery this morning. Contrary to all the forums I read and my own outsized fears, he is recovering wonderfully from the three-in-one surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids, as well as have tubes placed in his ears. He has had trouble breathing since he was little (breathes through his mouth, when talking he often sounds as if he's congested, wakes up gasping sometimes at night), but we were hoping an earlier specialist's suggestion that he might grow into his enlarged tonsils and adenoids would come true. Unfortunately, it didn't and may have contributed to the fluid buildup in his ears that required him to have tubes placed at the age of 10, even though he hasn't had any ear infections since he was a toddler. The fluid buildup caused damage to the internal structure of my son's ears, and if we hadn't caught it in time, he would have undergone a five-hour surgery and would still have lost his hearing.
Thankfully, we did catch it in time and so we ended up having three surgeries in one. We had the procedures done in one day at Children's National Medical Center's ambulatory surgery center in Rockville, MD. I chose the facility over the center's main DC hospital because I knew that traffic and parking in Rockville HAD to be better than downtown. (I was right) Everyone, from the specialist to the receptionist to the anesthesiologist to the recovery room nurse, was friendly, patient and great with my son.
There are several ways a surgeon can remove your tonsils, and I had requested the coblation technique after doing some research on the Internet. My son's specialist, Dr. Sukgi Choi, said the latest research indicated that the technique yielded results (as in recovery time and post-operative pain) equal to other techniques but was willing to do it when parents requested it. I had her do it, although I had second thoughts when she came out after the surgery and said it took longer and my son bled more because of the technique.
I don't know whether it was the technique or my son's constitution, but my son has so far had an excellent recovery. He hasn't vomited once in the 12 hours since the surgery and he hasn't complained at all about any throat pain (but that might be because of the pain medicine he's been taking, although we're still on regular Tylenol and not the one with the codeine).
Before the surgery, I stocked up on sorbets, Italian ices, Pedialite popsicles and ice cream, but so far he's only wanted apple juice. He tried vanilla ice cream and a berry slushee from Burger King this evening, but didn't like how it tasted, and so has stuck with apple juice.
More to come...
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