First Post/SURGERY NIGHTMARE

I have been wanting to start a blog but this is not exactly what I thought my first post would be about.

This past week has been a really long hard rollercoaster that I am praying is over. Last Wednesday Kay had to have her tonsils and adnoids removed bc of lots of strep throat and snoring. It all seemed routine. No big deal give her some silly medicine (which I have to say she was VERY silly), take her back 15-20min surgery, 15-20min recovery. Sounds simple right?! Yeah no it was all fine until after the dr called and said it went well and they would have her back to us within the next 20min. Well after 30+ min still no sign of her nor anyone telling us what is going on. Finally an aid came and got me and took me to her. The nurse said that she was beginning to move around but not waking up. I try talking to her and rubbing her back trying to get her to open her eyes. Then I notice that she is having some apnea (stopping breathing) and mentioned it to the nurse. She says yeah I noticed it to, does she do it at home? I said occasionally but not like this. We get back into the recovery room with her and she continued to have apnea. I said something to our nurse and she blows it off that it is just anthesia. We finally get her to woke up enough to start trying her on some fluids. She drank a little sprite and ate a little bite of popsicle. Apparently that is enough for them to release us. As N is signing the discharge papers she started throwing up. The nurse continued on with her business and sent us home.

Wednesday night was HORRIBLE! It took us an hour an a half plus just to get medicine down. Then fluids got harder and harder to get down her. By Thursday am I didnt know what to do. She would just sit w her mouth up drooling everywhere. If I did manage to force any fluids down they came back up within min. So I am beginning to realize that we just need to get back to the hospital w her. This is where the NIGHTMARE really begins.

I call N and tell him to get home we need to go to the er w Kay. I called my step mom C and ask her to keep Jay while we are gone. We get to the er and we both are determined they are not throwing us to the wolves this time. They are gonna make sure she is taking fluids by mouth before we leave. We get into a room and a really nice Physicians asst (PA) comes in. She tells us that since she hasnt had pain med since the night before she wants to do pain med, nausea med and iv fluids then after all that has kicked in she would come in and examine her. She also said before she would let us go home someone would have to watch her drink fluids or eat a popsicle. We were thrilled that they were gonna do something and also impressed w the attitude of the PA. The nurse comes and says that she is gonna start the iv, give her morphine, and lofran for nausea. She gets it all done and tells us she would be back to check on her in a few min. She turned the lights off and we sat quietly so she could rest. I'm playing angry birds on my phone and noticed that Kay is very restless and making a funny noise (i recognized it from the night before). I laid my hand on her and she is not breathing. I told N, "I think we need a nurse." He ask why. I said she is holding her breath. He gets to the door and looking for a nurse. I yelled, "It dont matter who is out there get someone now she is NOT breathing!!" He yells that we need someone bc she isnt breathing. A nurse comes running and tossing her around trying to get her to come out of it. The nurse said ok she is breathing. I said no watch her. She then quit again (later this nurse says that it was a 15-20sec apnea) and turned blue, so she starts hollaring I need a dr and respirtory!! That little er room was filled in sec! It sent us chillin with flashbacks watching our babies stop breathing and turning blue! I had hoped I would NEVER see one of our girls go through something like this again. They were bagging her and doing everything they could to get her to wake up and breath. When the dr walked in he said "awe she is a tiny tot!" He ask the nurses if she had been given morphine and how much. They told him. He then ask, "does she weigh 20kilos?" N and I looked at each other and then the nurses looked at us. We said, "no 11.6kilo." (she had just been weighed) The dr then proceeds to go off on the PA. At this point Im not real sure what was being said bc I was worried about Kay. What we did get out of the whole conversation is that she (Kay) had been given an overdose of morphine. I ask the dr about it and he said that it was a very generous dose but it was an amt that she could have but over time not all at once. They were able to get Kay awake and breathing but the respiratory therapist & I had to sit at the end of her bed poking, tickling or whatever to keep her awake and breathing. Everytime she would go to sleep she would quit breathing. They put in a tube they call a "nasal trumpet" to open up her airway through her nose. Finally it seemed like she was coming out of it. She was looking at us and I wasnt having to poke her near as much. Then it went straight downhill. She wouldnt respond to anything. It was like she was in a coma. The respiratory therapist tried everything- nothing. The dr came in w a smelly stick and said, "watch this I'll wake her up!"-nothing. He worked probably 5min with no response. He looked at me and said, "she was a hard patient to begin with now she is really pissing me off!" He told us he was going to get a drug to reverse the effects of the morphine. We said, "ok, how long does it take to work." He said "maybe 30sec. And she is going to be very upset!" Boy was he right! It no longer hit her veins and she was trying to jump off the bed SCREAMING!!! It took 4 of us to try to hold her down. We finally got her calmed down some and she seemed to be coming down off the high she was on. The reason I say high is because....She had been making some weird movements so I ask the dr and he said "honestly she is high".  They let us know after the first spell that we would be there overnight.

They finally got us a room in PICU. After we got up there we were talking w the NP and DR and they ask about giving her a very small dose of morphine. So they could keep her pain under control and that they had the reversal med sitting bed side. We agreed very hesitantly for the time being. They then ask other than her being overdosed down stairs is there anything else....... REALLY!!! Someone finally admitted what had happened to our baby. So they gave her the smallest dose they could (a NICU dose really). After 4hrs she woke up screaming!!! Lookin right at me or dh screaming "I want mommy/daddy!!!" Our poor baby was so messed up on drugs she didnt have a clue!!! She would look at us with this far away stare and scream then hit us. That is just not our child..... And there was nothing we could do.

Thurs night/Friday morning-Around 1am she got a dose of the morphine and it seemed to hold very well. By the next morning she still had not had anymore. We decided that we wanted to not do morphine unless it was 100% necessary. We were finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel when she woke up and began talking to us. She was telling us what was on tv and she needed to potty. We were so excited!! She still was having some fits when she needed to potty but they were very controllable and short lived. At one point N had stepped out of the room and she let me know she needed to potty. She cried alot but it wasnt unusual. I had a nurse aid to come in and help me get her on and off the potty. Well as I got her back into the bed the nurse came in and ask if everything was ok. I said yes she just needed to potty, I got it. N's step dad and cousin came in to see her and I went out to eat lunch. We came back in the room and we knew something happened. The nurse, as she is walking away from me and out of the room, informs us that she had to give her morphine. I ask why and said it would have been nice for her to let us know before she did it! Come to find out Ns step dad had helped her potty, so that explains why she got upset. I did everything I could to avoid that nurse. Later in the day my mom came to visit Kay. She ask the nurse why they were doing morpine (i wont go into the whole story) and she, the nurse, then proceeds to get rude with my mom about it. The nurse then looks at me and says "I wouldnt have give it to her if we had not agreed the next time she got irriate she would get it." I said, "you knew that she was getting mad when she needed to potty and you did it anyway. You could have called me and told me what was going on. I was just in the hallway eating.I wasnt gone long." She said, "no she has been doing this for the past 30-45min!" I said, "excuse me I have been gone maybe 15min and she wasnt doing it when I left!" The conversation continued for another min then she left. The dr came in not 2min after she left. I told her what had happened and that I was not happy. I also explained that she had been 10hrs without and had just been awake and talking. She said that she would take morphine off the orders so that nurses could not just come in and shot her up w it without even evaluating the situation. We discussed that they would do a tylenol suppistory (sorry not sure on sp) and if it got to bad phenital (it is a milder narcotic) would be a one at a time dosage as needed. Of course 4 hrs after the morphine she woke up screaming and hitting. After 35+min of 4 adults fighting to hold her down so she would not get hurt we finally got the nurse in there (mind you 6-8nurses were sitting right outside her room and could hear her. plus 3 of us went out there trying to get someone to help.). Of course she wants to walk in w the phenital in her hand. I said is there not something else we can do. She said either the med or tie her to the bed. Are you serious?! So I very unwillingly agreed to the phenital. N made it very clear this was a one time only thing. After this we were done w phenital as well. About an hour an a half to two hours later she started coming out of it in a rage! It didnt last long and from that point we said tylenol. Also that morning they did and xray bc she had a pretty bad oxygen drop. They found that she had aspirated alot of blood and her lungs were full of fluid. The night shift nurse helped us alot that night. She was in the room everytime Kay woke up. But the fits were not bad that night. Kay also weaned herself off the oxygen mask.

I had prayed to wake up and see my beautiful little girls eyes again. Saturday morning that is just what happened!!!!!! It was the most awesome thing to wake up and look and see her looking at me! The drs came and said that hopefully we would be able to move to a room in the afternoon. We were finally moving our way out of there. They did another xray to see if there was any change. There was no change but it did turn into pnuemonia. We had the absolute best PICU nurse that day and then they moved us to the best floor nurse that afternoon. Samantha, our floor nurse, was AWESOME!!! She did everything she could to make Kay comfortable and happy. She showed us the little outdoor play area they had that Kay could ride in a wagon to. That first wagon ride and trip to the play area was AWESOME!!! We came back and Samantha said, "she looks like a different kid now!". We were finally able to get her to start taking her med by mouth and drinking tiny drops of juice. It just got better from there. Sunday and Monday we had another great nurse Jennifer. She was sooooo good to Kay and gave us advice and helped us to get her moving forward.

Finally the best morning (Monday) came (other than our baby girl waking up) when they said we would be going home!!!!! Jennifer was wonderful helping me get things together and helping to make sure the fluids were going in well.

It was and still is WONDERFUL to have all 4 of us home again! We missed Jay so much. Poor thing was such a trooper bouncing around place to place (im pretty sure it wasnt that bad bc she was being spoiled by grandparents, lol) .

Yesterday I took Kay to her pediatrician for a check up after the horrible experience. They said that she was looking good and her lungs sound pretty clear. So now it is just finishing the antibotics and keeping her drinking.

After I had time at home to sit and think about everything that happened it just REALLY made me mad! What were they thinking?! It started off wrong with the nurse sending us home the day of surgery knowing that she was having apnea and throwing up. Then we get to er and they overdose her. Then we ge to PICU and they wanted to keep giving her the morphine. We are still thinking about what steps we need to take in all this. Do you we speak w someone higher up and let them know how they let a patient down? Do we not do anything? Do we sue? We could have lost our child bc of someones careless mistake.  It has diffently made us think.

It also makes us sick thinking about how this has affected her. Our poor baby is sooooo traumatized by all of this. She wakes up screaming in pain then fear of what is gonna happen. I know this will eventually get better but going through it is AWFUL!!!

Sorry this was so long but I need it off my chest. We are more than willing to read comments and your thoughts. I promise I will have a post that is good talking about THE SIMS FAMILY LIFE soon!