by jacksmom » Tue Jan 15, 2008 12:43 pm
You're right, everyone's recovery stories are different! My son had his palate in April 2007, at nine months. I have to admit that when they brought him back from surgery, I was a little overwhelmed by the amount of swelling and blood. No one really warned us about that! We are still unsure if it was all from the surgery, or an allergic reaction to the morphine. As soon as they brought him back, he took 3 ounces of pedialytle from his Haberman. After that, he didn't want ANYTHING near his mouth! We could get him to take little sips of juice from a syringe, but that was about it for the first couple of days. I asked to stay an extra day in the hospital, with an IV so that he wouldn't get dehydrated. After we got home and got him OFF of the tylenol with codeine, he did much better. Alternating the regular tylenol with Motrin seemed to control his pain the best. (Be sure to ask before using Motrin, some docs don't like to use it after surgery)
The first week was pretty tough. He would only sleep like 45 minutes at a time, and then just wake up screaming. I think a lot of the trouble was from the anesthesia. After day 10, he was getting back to normal. I felt like he wasn't eating enough, but then when we went in for our follow up, he had actually GAINED weight! I was shocked!
In all, it was a long 2 weeks, but you will mak it through, and looking back it is already hard to remember how bad it was! It seems like forever ago! I just kept reminding myself that I was doing what was best for him! Hang in there! You will be on the other side of this journey very soon! Hope i didn't make it worse with too much info....I just feel like no one prepared us for what to expect! Good luck and keep us posted!
Allison