It’s tough to be Apollo. His recovery from his g-tube removal is not going as smoothly as I hoped.
When the surgeon came out to speak to me after the surgery I asked about how much pain to expect.
“It will be tender, like a bruise” he replied. He said it should be totally manageable with a little Tylenol if he even needed that. When we left the hospital, Apollo walked to his mandatory wheelchair. He was tired and groggy but in no pain. He threw up a few times on the way home, but that isn’t unusual after surgery. The doctor had numbed the entire area, so he didn’t feel anything.
Three days in I assume of these two things must be true.
- Either the surgeon has never had a bruise or
- he has never had a g-tube stoma surgically closed.
Apollo’s recovery has been very rough and nothing, nothing like a “bruise”.
The next day, day one of recovery was hard. He was walking hunched over, painfully slow, like an 80-year-old man. He was moving exactly like I did after my c-section. Rolling over, sitting up and turning were extremely painful for him. He was also running a low-grade fever.
Yesterday, day two of recovery was worse. The pain was worse and his temperature higher.
I called the nurse down at Children’s who told me I should be switching between Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours (standard pain treatment after surgery). I hadn’t been dosing him every three hours because 1) he was only in pain if he moved, 2) the doctor said it would be “tender like a bruise” so preventative pain measures hardly seemed necessary (in his mind) and 3) getting him to take medicine orally is every bit as difficult as I feared.
Since yesterday afternoon I have been doing every three hours dosing. He woke up in pain in the night and then early this morning.
The “no PE for a week” warning seems a little bit silly since he can barely walk. There is no way he could walk up to the bus stop at the top of our driveway, much less attend a day of school.
He is asleep at the moment (after a very bad night) so I have no idea how he is going to be today, day three.
Ugh! Day 3 is usually the worst. Praying for healing.
Poor baby. I hope he starts feeling better soon.
I am really sorry to hear this. The pain sounds too dramatic and he is running fever too, I would be worried about a post-op infection (and I really hope I’m wrong).
I know, it’s ridiculous, because the nurse wasn’t concerned at all!
I would take him to a good pediatrician. This much pain does sound like more than the prescribed meds can manage, and the fever suggests infection.
I’m a worry wart. Sorry.
I agree…be very careful if he has a fever. After an appendectomy I developed staph infection in the incision and it was HORRIBLE. Better to catch it sooner than later, if there is infection! Poor baby!
For sure. I called and talked to a nurse on Thursday, called and talked to a doctor on Saturday. Neither seemed concerned in the least. Too bad, since it turned out to be a puss-fill infection 🙁
I’m not a worry wart, but I am very aware and watchful of his medical stuff. We ended up going to a walk in clinic (since it was Saturday) before heading to Seattle.
Ditto, heirs body does not react well to surgery, the pain can also signal infection. Sorry
Yes, I’m on it.
I’m still in shock you had to have to surgically closed. They just took my daughters after 8 years and just let it close, took only a couple days was completely closed and healed with no pain and no surgery.
He had both scar and granualtion tissue surrounding the site. If he didn’t have that, or just a small amount, they would have let it close on its own.
Praying!
Thank you!