surgery and recovery

This past Monday, Jack had his 2nd CI surgery on his right ear. I'm thrilled and relieved to say everything went well and there were no complications! We checked into the hospital around 7:30 am, and he went behind the surgery doors at 9:30. Here are a few pictures to document the days of and after surgery.

This is actually before the surgery, but Jack wanted to lay down and cuddle his blankey and teddy. He had his blood pressure, temp, weight, etc. taken and was starting to get nervous with all the nurses, but he calmed down after a few minutes and started smiling for us. Then he climbed on the bed and I covered him with the hospital blanket and he stayed like that for about 10 minutes or so.

This is in the recovery room after surgery, he's cuddling Daddy. He woke up very sweetly, no attitude. The recovery room is an open room full of other kids waking up, and many of them do not wake up sweetly. When Jack's first ear was done, we heard a kid waking up in recovery angrily yell "I want Chuck-e-Cheese!!" He was mad. But Jack was very calm and just wanted to be held; the nurse commented on how Jack just let her hold him when he first woke up and she enjoyed the cuddles so much! That's our Jack.
We came home from the hospital the same day, and unfortunately Jack couldn't keep any liquids down without throwing-up, so it was a tough day. He napped on and off the rest of the day, and HAD to be held if was awake. He was very clingy which is very unusual for him, but I enjoyed that part secretly. Monday night was tough because we had him in our bed, that way we could make sure his head bandage stayed on (he had already pulled it off in the car). He was getting pretty cranky and wanted his Daddy, so Jon slept with him the WHOLE night, meaning Jack would finally fall asleep and Jon would wriggle a few inches away for some space, then Jack would wake up 30 minutes later screaming and jump on top of Jon to be held. He had to be held. Jon blessedly let me sleep in the other room so I could get some rest.

Then Tuesday morning arrived, and hallelujah, we could take off the head band! Jack was much relieved to have it off. Jon went back to work and Jack and I lazed around the living room watching t.v. Jack napped in the morning about 1 hour, and then crashed mid-afternoon for a couple of hours on the couch (pictured below).

And Tuesday afternoon Jack was acting more like his normal Jack self, playing with his cars and coming to Mommy every few minutes for a much-needed hug. He was still very clingy and loving (the best part about recovery). Oh, he also was no longer nauseous on Tuesday and was able to eat and drink normally, yea.

It's now Thursday, and Jack is back to complete normalcy in his routine and behavior. His ear is still healing and we've kept it dry the past few days, but it's now allowed to get wet. In a few weeks, once all healed, we'll visit the audiologist and "turn-on" the right ear! Having two ears will really help him localize sound and hear better in noisy environments. He's doing so well with just having his left ear, I'm excited that soon he'll have the surround-sound experience. On the subject of how well he's doing, he's now saying "uice" for juice and "moh" for more! Another sidenote- when given his initial dose of anesthesia, I was still with him and we were watching Curious George on t.v. Jack was starting to act pretty drunk from the medicine, but when he saw the monkey on t.v. he slowly slurred "ooo, ooo, ooo, ahh, ahh, ahh." Now if that's not darn cute, I don't know what is.