Jiggity Jig
As you already know, Matthew coped really well with the surgery and the pain post-op, so we were transferred from the ICU down to the surgical ward. The night we had on the surgical ward was no different. They hooked him back up to the pulse oximeter just to be on the safe side, but didn’t hear a peep out of the machine (or the boy) for the whole night. He slept reasonably soundly considering the nurse came in every hour to do observations on his breathing and heart rate. I, however, did not cope so well with the nurse entering the room so often. I think at one point I had a conversation with her whilst I was still asleep. I remember saying something urgent to her, but cannot remember what I said. Oh well, I am sure they are used to over-tired parents saying things in their sleep. When the doctors came in to the ward the following morning, they were very pleased with Matthew’s progress and had already organised for us to go home that morning. That made me laugh a little because Matthew was such a sick little boy for a long time but now that he is older and bigger, he breezes through surgical procedures like they are nothing at all. The specialist surgeon that did the surgery even told us that he was amazed that Matthew did not require a throat reconstruction considering how long he was ventilated for and how many tubes would have been poked down in that time. He agreed with us that our little boy is a miracle and a fighter.
So we have been home for one night and Matthew slept soundly through the night. Shame we didn’t get that luxury – the pulse oximeter probe kept falling off his toe and setting off the alarms which kept us awake until we decided it was time to switch the machine off and get some well-deserved rest. We have decided to not put the pulse oximeter probe on tonight as Matthew is doing so well and because we need to catch up on our sleep 