We finally did it!
Today was the day that we went to the big pink hospital (Tripler Army Medical Center) for Nathan's surgery. I have been anticipating this forever! He got his tonsils out, adenoid removed, and tubes in his ears.
Check-in time at the Surgery Clinic was at 8:30am, and kids weren't allowed unless they are patients, so Matt and the kids dropped us off. We checked in, got his vitals taken, and then they gave us a pair of hospital pajamas and waited to be called. 
It wasn't too long before we got called, and then they took us down to the surgery holding area where they gave him 2 syringes full of Demoral to relax him and then waited for his meds to kick in.
Here's a video of him talking about who he misses, and saying goodbye to his tonsils:
Waiting for the meds to kick in....
Getting sleepy......
Here's a video of Nathan, high on Demoral, trying to sit up in bed.
Watch his eyes. LOL!
THE MEDS HAVE OFFICIALLY KICKED IN!!!
Trying to keep his eyes open
We waited for a total of about 2 hours before they finally came in and wheeled him back to the O.R. where they gave him 'happy gas' to fall asleep, and THEN gave him an IV after he was asleep. That was nice of them.
Then I had time to kill. The Dr. said that the procedure would only take about 45 minutes so I was looking at about an hour wait. So I walked around the Bermuda Triangle aka Tripler trying to find my way to the bottom floor to get something to eat for lunch. And my nose told me there was a Subway in the building, but I couldn't find it! I walked by the DFAC (dining facility) two or three times, past the gift shop, post office, and whatever else until I finally found it! But I also found the PX on the way and got Nathan a little puppy dog as a get well present. THEN I got me a sandwich, and went back into the Family waiting area because it had already been 45 minutes, and I didn't want the doctor to come in and have me not be there.
So I found my way back to the family waiting area and talked with a really nice Red Cross Volunteer who was keeping everybody updated on who was out of surgery in recovery. We were all making small talk in the room together, and I talked with a guy who was MediVac'd here because he was in an explosion in Iraq! Poor guy! I didn't think of it then, but I should have thanked him for fighting for our freedom. DANG!
TWO HOURS LATER I was starting to worry a little. The doctor said an hour, so I was getting nervous. And Matt was texting me like crazy telling me to find out what was going on, but I couldn't, and right at that moment the doctor came in and told me he was out. I was one of the lucky ones who got to go back into the recovery area because Nathan is under 16. :o)
It was a little sad seeing him just laying there on the bed with an oxygen mask on struggling to breathe because he'd had so much trauma to his throat area. The male nurse was holding his chin up to open his airway so he could breathe better. He sounded like he was crying, but he was sleeping. It was weird.
Here's Nathan laying on the bed in recovery:
He woke up a little bit, but was still so high on drugs that he wasn't his normal self. When the nurse asked him if he wanted a popsicle, he shook his head, but didn't eat hardly anything. He just sat there barely alert holding his popsicle:
Then we took his popsicle and let him sleep:
The nurse had taken off his oxygen mask and had just been holding the oxygen hose in front of his face. And he put it down for a second and Nathan sat up and grabbed it and held it in front of his face!!!
He was all sorts of crazy!
Then he went back to sleep again:
We spent about 2 hours in the recovery room when all of a sudden Nathan sat STRAIGHT UP and was AWAKE!! for REAL this time! It was crazy! He was laying there one second and then shot up in bed! He looked over at me and I said, "Hi Nathan!" Then he looked down and laughed cuz they took his shirt off! Silly boy! He asked me what was on his hand (the IV), then I gave him the puppy I'd bought for him at the PX. He was very happy :o)
Here's Nathan with his popsicle and puppy:
Then we finally got to go up to the Pediatric area to get a room.
We shared the room with two other people; one 4 year old boy who had the same surgery as Nathan, and then a lady with a TINY Newborn baby who she'd taken into the emergency room for a high fever. She left before the night was over, against medical advice. Stupid lady!
We had a great view of the Ocean from our room!
(we got the bed by the window ;o))
Here's Nathan in bed playing with his Light Bright:
Later on, Daddy and the kids came to visit. And stupid me, didn't take ANY pictures of the kids while they were visiting with Nathan!! So much for being a good picture taker! All I got was them as they were coming into the hospital. Ugh! I could kick myself!
They brought him a Lioness Webkinz and a Lizard. He was very happy about that. He ended up falling asleep before they left, but later on he said to me,
"That was very nice of Daddy to let the children buy me a present."
HAHA! Crazy kid!
Because he was sleeping when they left, I walked them downstairs and then went and got myself some dinner from the last place that was open.
I can't say we had the best sleep that night because we hardly slept at all. And I'd pulled over the couch that turns into a bed, and Nathan kept telling me he wanted me to sleep with HIM! And I said, "I am." and he said, "No, in my BED, so I won't be scary."
So I chuckled, and said, "Okaaay....."
So when the nurse came back in and caught me laying in his bed too, I pointed to him and said, "His idea..." She said that it was fine as long as they could still get to him to check his vitals and IV fluids.
The ENT doctor came back in around 6am and told us that we could check out because Nathan was doing so well.
So we got breakfast...
... and then waited for Daddy to come get us.
We went to "SRP", or some kind of weird Army acronym, before came to get us, so we waited around for a while. Nathan started taking more pictures with my camera.
Here I am catching up on some of my lost sleep:
Thanks Nathan.
Then I took a picture of his THROAT!!
and check out his Tongue!
That was one of the first things he complained about when he woke up, too, was that his tongue was fat. That was from the clamp that they put on your tongue when they remove your tonsils. They stretch it from side to side taking out whichever tonsil they need to! OUCH!
But anyhow, we are home now, with our bag of medicine and rules to follow. Semi-solid foods for TWO WEEKS strict! If anything hard scratches his throat, it could take off the scabs and his throat will start bleeding! Eek! I think we'll stick to soft foods!
And when we got home, we had a WELCOME HOME sign made for us by the sweet Advincula familia. MUCHAS GRACIAS ADVINCULAS!
He is doing GREAT! Hopefully he'll be back at school in about a week.
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