I've decided to keep my mouth shut about how great or not great my life is and just stick to the facts because apparently the Lord has a good sense of humor (and knows I do too I guess) about my "bragging" about my good life. The Thursday after Griffin's surgery (4 days later), he woke up with a fever of 102. I gave him his pain meds and that brought it down to around 99 where it stayed the rest of the morning and afternoon. He was different though. It almost like he had the same pain as before his surgery again. He had been up and running around on Wednesday, but Thursday he could hardly move. He cried a lot. I thought he may have been in more pain because Adam and I removed his original bandage Wednesday night for the first time since the surgery. I waited until afternoon and he was just acting miserable, so at the last minute I called Kelly Stack (Amanda's mom) and asked if she could go with me to the dr. if they could see him today. I knew he wouldn't be able to sit in his car seat, so I couldn't drive him there without someone to hold him. She agreed, so I called the dr. and they said to bring him in. We got there and by the time we were there he was pretty much lethargic and sweating pretty bad. His temp was up a little but not much- I think around 100. The dr. looked at his belly and said it looked a little inflamed, but not that bad so he may need some oral antibiotics. He decided to check Griff's white blood cell count just in case, but like has been the constant in all of this, he was skeptical that anything was that wrong. After a torturous blood draw, the dr. came back to tell me that his white cell count was back up to where it was pre-surgery. He sent us straight to the hospital to be admitted directly to the pediatric unit again and prepare for surgery #2. He said it was probably just some infection in the incision site and it would be simple to wash it out. Luckily at this point, Adam was almost home from work, so I made arrangements for Deegan to stay a little longer with my sweet neighbor Briana until Kelly could pick him up and take him and Ritter to her house for the night. Kelly and I headed to the hospital with Griff and Ritter and got checked back in and hooked up to all the monitors and IV. That was about where my emotions from the whole week broke through the barrier! One surgery I could deal with, but that much pain and trauma for an almost 3 yr old in one week is too much! Adam and Amanda's dad (Harold) met us at the hospital just in time to give him a blessing and send him back to surgery. It was a LONG LONG hour waiting. Much longer this time! When they brought him back to his room he was still sleeping. The nurses said everything went well and they took out about a tablespoon of pus just inside his incision and he should be good by the next day to go home. The next morning (at 4 am!) the lab guy came and drew more blood to check his white cell count. It had only dropped from 27000 to 26000, which was not a good sign. My mom came and picked up Deegan and Ritter and took them to her house for the day before sending Deeg to Adam's parents for the night and Ritter to my sister's for the night. Deegan had a dress rehearsal for his play Saturday morning, so the Powell's were going to bring him back up here for that. My sister's kids were at their dads, so she volunteered to be the one staying up all night with a baby who wants his mom! (From what I hear, it was a rough night!)
They kept us through that day and monitored his fever which spiked once or twice, but not too high and not for long. He was pretty miserable that day. He hated seeing any medical personnel come near his room, he hated all of the poking and prodding and the IV and oxygen monitor. I think he was more aware of what was happening this time around and so he knew to be scared and sad. By Friday night, things still weren't looking any better, so the dr. said that we'd stay through the night and check his white cell count again in the morning. If it hadn't improved enough then we'd do a CT scan to see what else was going on inside his tiny little body. They next morning (4am again) the lab guy came and drew his blood again. When the surgeon came through later in the morning, he told us that the white cell count had dropped to about 17000 which is right at the high end of normal. They sent us home with oral antibiotics and hopes to never see them again! At his follow up appointment the next Tuesday, the surgeon said everything was looking good and we could just go on with our normal lives now! His incision is still closing, and it's still painful for him, but so far, we've stayed on the "steady improvement" path, so hopefully we are almost done with this ordeal!
He's been extra tired since all of this, and a few days ago I was cleaning up the kitchen before lunch and he was playing in the kitchen. He hid under his blanket and within seconds was asleep! The next day he fell asleep at the front door waiting for me to find Ritter's shoes before Deegan's play practice.
