Surgery Day

owen finally has his pharyngeal flap. we left home yesterday afternoon and stopped at the bass pro shops in prattville where owen had a wonderful time at the fish tank--a fun store even if you don't hunt, fish, or camp. part of the thrill for owen was having his bontrager grandparents along and his little sister at home. he was so excited he couldn't sleep till eleven last night. grandpa b left for indiana this morning and grandma stayed behind to help with jack. we arrived at the hospital by 10:30 this morning but since owen's was the last surgery on the schedule he didn't begin his procedure until 3:00 this afternoon. for a little boy with nothing to eat or drink he did fantastic. i remember him asking for milk two or three times all day. about thirty minutes after owen went into the o.r. i received a call from the surgeon wanting permission to remove his tonsils. it seems they were "enormous" and he couldn't do the pharyngeal flap procedure with the tonsils in place so out they came. dr. wiatrak said the surgery went very well but there is really no way to predict how much it will improve his speech. success will be giving him the physical tools to speak properly and the ability to unlearn all of his bad compensation mechanisms. we won't know if the surgery accomplished this until the swelling goes down and he spends a lot of time with a speech therapist.

now we are in the "special care unit" which is a step down from intensive care. owen is sleeping off the anesthesia and morphine. joyce, jack, and ruby are out getting supper and i am hanging out with owen. i will get the night shift and the scu rules prohibit eating, drinking, or sleeping at the bedside. excellent. he should only have to spend one night in the unit and move to a private room tomorrow.

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While Jason was out finding supper and I was out feeding Jack, Mom stayed in the room with Owen. When I came back, Mom looked at me with a funny smile and said that 20 minutes beforehand, Owen had pulled out the tubes in his nose and handed them to her while she was standing at his bedside. (The tubes were there to maintain an airway.) The nurse made a call to the doctor and found out that if the tubes need to be replaced, Owen will probably have to undergo anesthesia again, which if needed, won't happen until morning. We are hopeful that won't be necessary, as his O2 sat is still looking good at 96% on room air.

10 minutes until we get kicked out of here. We'll keep updating...