Surgery Day

Yesterday was one of the longest and most stressful days of my life. We had Tatum at the hospital at 8:00am for her 10:00am surgery. She was a rock star the whole time pre-op. she won the crowds over, in typical Tatum style. Wait until I post the hair net photos!

I carried Tatum back to the OR and her sweet nurses sang the ABC song until the gas made her fall asleep. I kissed her cheek one last time and I was escorted to the waiting room to meet Todd. ENT went first and literally took 10 minutes to insert the tubes. tatum had thick discharge in her ears, so the ENT dr was happy with the decision to put in tubes. Next the reconstructive work on Tatums palate started at 10:30 and the dr was complete by 12:30. We were then called to the recovery room to be there while Tatum woke up. She is such a peaceful sleeper, it took awhile to see her come to. We ended up in recovery for close to 3 hours because her room was nos not ready. Tatum did well. As soon as she was awake enough, she couldn't get out of her crib fast enough into my arms.

The finally over us to the 3rd floor. That is when things spiraled out of control for us and Tatum. She didn't seem to be responding to the morphine well, but at first we all thought she was just in pain. We had the nurses call the pain team, they upped her dose, gave her some Benadryl to help with itching but there was no relaxing this baby. Finally at the end of the shift at 7:00pm I looked at the new nurse, Rachel who is amazing!! And told her she had to do something. Tatum was so irrational, body moving all around, I was so worried and scared. Nothing was comforting her. They ended up removing her iv and inserting a new one, switched her pain med and gave her some Valium. We walked the halls, it was so exhausting. Todd's parents arrived and it was so juice to see them. They were a great distraction for Tatum on and off and a great support for us while Tatum hada new iv put in with no pain medicine.

Through the night, Tatum was on dilaudid, Valium and Tylenol. She also has her iv fluids. We got to the hospital after sleeping on and off at the children's house at 7:00am. We spoke to the residents and tatum had a fever at 5:00am of 102.1 they gave her some more Tylenol and it is coming down. It is 8:30 and she is still sleeping peacefully. I am guarded at the door and am not letting a sole in here unless absolutely possible. She needs her rest.

My heart is breaking for this beautiful baby girl. I've only known her for 6 months, but she knew yesterday who was here for her, who loves her and who will protect her. She is so brave, and so strong. Physically too. I am exhausted from holding her yesterday and also from trying to contain her. It's been a rough 24 hours to say the least. But we are holding it together for Tatum and doing everything possible to make her better.