As I said in the earlier post, Braxton had a scheduled tonsillectomy this last Wednesday, which is a story in and of itself. He has had bad breath since before September. It has been awhile, I can't even remember how long it has been. Anyway, we would brush his teeth night and morning, floss them, and mouthwash him, and his breath stil stunk. While we were in Hawaii, Dennis mentioned that his son used to stick stuff up his nose and they knew because he would have really bad breath. While we were there, we looked up his nose with a flashlight and didn't see anything. I figured when we got home we could go to the dentist and an ENT specialist. I was pretty certain that it had nothing to do with his stomach because he never complains of stomach problems.
When we got home, I got a dentist appointment scheduled for the boys, and I am so proud to announse that neither of them had any cavities at all. Yay, that was a relief. So, I scheduled an appointment with an ENT specialist. He looked in his nose and didn't see anything. He said he could do a scope down his nose but that Brax probably wouldn't take it very well and that usually if they have something up their nose you can usually tell right away. Then he moved to Braxton's mouth and looked at his tonsils. He saw a tonsillith or a tonsil stone on his tonsils, and his tonsils were 3+, which means they were pretty big. He said since his tonsils are big he is more prone to infection. He showed me the tonsil stone back on his tonsils. It was just a white little thing on his tonsils.
The ENT doc told me that he prefers to wait until kids are at least 5 to take tonsils out because they seem to do a little better, and so I took that info home, and Troy and I discussed it. Braxton has not had any strep infections ever or throat infections recently for that matter. Since Brax is almost 4, we figured we could wait a year to get the tonsils out, we would just be risking infections due to the big tonsils and, not to mention, dealing with his really, really bad breath for that long. We decided that we would just go for it since Brax is a pretty tough little guy, and he is pretty cooperative with taking medicine.
Wednesday, we took him in and they put him out at 9:30 in the morning. The doc said that the tonsillectomy normally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. The doc came out to get us at 10:45, and so that was a little longer than we expected. He said that he got the first tonsillith and then went a little further and found a pocket of a half a teaspoon more of stones. He said that they were the worst tonsils he has ever seen. He was shocked to see so many tonsil stones, and he had to go quite deep to get them all.
They gave him some morphine through his IV because of the pain, and we just held him for the 4-hour recovery time. He was pretty miserable. He didn't want to take any fluids whatsoever, not popsicles, water, or even ice cream. His oxygen even was up and down possibly due to the morphine and/or anesthesia. So, after 4 hours, the anesthesiologist and doctor came in and decided it would be best to admit him just to watch his oxygen and keep him on fluids so we wouldn't have to come back to the ER for dehydration.
So, by about 4:30, we were in the Children's Hospital in a room. Braxton was pretty bummed to have to stay at the hospital, but we knew that it was probably for the best. That evening we did get him to swallow some Lortab, but he wouldn't swallow anything else. They put him on IV fluids through the night, and made sure he was in the least amount of pain as possible. The next morning I got him to take some ice cream, although you could just tell how hard it was for him to swallow and how much concentration it required. Poor little guy.
By 6:00 Thursday evening we were discharged to go home. Brax had been able to swallow some slushee as well as the ice cream and water, and we decided that he would probably do okay at home. He had great doctor's and nurse's at the hospital who helped take really good care of him. He got a new blanket and teddy bear as well as 3 awesome books and a stuffed beanie babie parot to take home. He was definitely spoiled. They had to bribe him to swallow.
Brayden, in the meantime, was spending some quality time with his Grandma Addie and Grandpa Dennis at home. He was pretty bumbed that Brax wasn't home to play with him. He was not allowed to go back in Brax's room at the hospital, but Brax was allowed to go out to the waiting room to see Brayd.
Before the surgery, Brax being his normal, silly self.
After he was admitted to the hospital. He was pretty tired and miserable. In most of these pics, his lips are either purple or blue from attempting to eat popsicles or blue Gatorade.
The first picture is Brax's IV. He liked the blue car wrap they put on it. The second pic is Brayden and Grandma waiting in the waiting room for Brax to come out.
Brax sitting in his wagon that he rode out to the waitng room in. Brayd was happy to see him, but he thought Brax smelled funny, which he did because of all of the slobber on his hospital gown.
Brax sitting on his dad's lap. He doesn't look to happy. He was having fun playing with the toys in the waiting room though.
Brayd was sorting the new skateboards Brax got for taking bites of ice cream, and he let Brayden have half of his skateboards. The second pic is right after we got home from the hospital. The boys both got a fun hospital bag full of crafts and a doggy hat. They both loved their dog hats, and they look really cute in them.
Thursday night we had Brax swallow some Lortab before he went to bed, but he ended up throwing up stomach acid all night. His Grandma slept with him all night and took such good care of him. The next day he woke up, ate a Gogurt, and after awhile, there was a breakthrough, he wanted noodles. I am sure his tummy was so, so hungry since not having food in it since Tuesday night. Brayd was so happy to have Brax home. Brax felt good enough to play with play dough with him. They had fun together.
It is amazing how much Brayd missed his bro. This morning, Brayd woke up and ate, and Brax was still in bed. Brayden was begging to wake him up to play with him. It is almost like they haven't seen each other for a week. This morning, after Brax woke up, I asked him how he was doing. He said he was feeling better. He hasn't even had to take his Lortab. I gave him Tylenol yesterday, but he didn't even want any last night. He also is talking much better and actually swallowing his spit. Yesterday, he would swallow when he ate, but the rest of the time, he wouldn't talk much because he would have a mouthful of spit that he wouldn't swallow. Silly boy. He has been doing really great. Thanks to everyone's thoughts and prayers for him.
