Another Day...Another Hospital Stay

At least this time the hospital stay was planned...  But planned or not, it is never fun to have a kiddo in the hospital.

Silas had to have work done on his airways to help him with his sleep apnea.  The malformation of his airway combined with his low muscle tone (which are both issues with Down Syndrome) cause horrible sleep apnea.  So he had to have a revision of his surgery that he had in January.

While he was under anesthesia, they went ahead and put tubes in his ears, and they also reduced his adenoids since they were so huge.  The real praise is that the surgeon didn't feel like he needed to pin Silas' epiglottis open, which was the original plan.  If they had pinned it open, he would have had to have a feeding tube installed.  Not fun.

Under anesthesia, they noticed that Silas' huge tongue flopped back and cut off air.  So the real culprit ended up not being his adenoids or his epiglottis or larynx like previously thought.  The simple solution to the apnea is to sleep Silas on his belly.  So we have gotten him off the oxygen at night and started belly sleeping him.  What a difference it has made!!  He is keeping his oxygen sats up just fine now.  So we are done with the oxygen, and he's not constantly setting the pulseox off anymore.

Silas' first day after surgery was painful.  He was hurting and disoriented from the anesthesia.  But after it wore off and the pain meds kicked in, he was back to his happy self again.  In fact, they discharged us straight from the ICU since he was doing so well.

It's been a week since surgery, and it is hard to believe.  Aside from some awful, stinky breath due to the healing airways and throat, he's back to normal.  The stay in the hospital didn't even mess up his sleeping schedule, which I am so thrilled about! :)

So here are some pictures to enjoy.

Waiting to be called back into pre-op.  We had to be there at O'Dark Thirty.

Changed into his hospital gown.  He spent more time trying to eat it than anything else.

Happy 5 Month Birthday, Little Silas Milas.

"What are they going to do to me?!"

In recovery.

There was a little too long of a lapse between pain meds and he was not happy.

Ahh... Morphine! 

We had to swaddle him to keep him from yanking his cords out.

This is when the nurses said, "He's too well to be in the ICU.  I think it's time to go home!"

Getting detached from the IV and machines. 

I'm free! Let's go home!