lizzybennet | (no subject)

I'm currently sitting in one of the outpatient surgical prep rooms. This will be where I stay while Petey's dental surgery is performed. I feel very good about how things have gone so far. Every one is very nice--as is typical of Idaho :) Petey's nurse, the anesthesiologist, and his nurses are all very nice, repeatedly asking if I have any questions. The only hitch was when the anesthesiologist noticed that Petey has a stuffy nose and asked if this is common. I couldn't come up with a coherent answer! I stumbled through something like "He's never been tested for allergies but I mean, he just gets sniffly noses like most kids do, nothing extrodinary...." and just trailed off. Wha..? I guess part of the problem was that I didn't understand what he was asking or why. Turns out that if Petey has a cold the anesthesia could make it turn into something worse. Once I understood that, then I could say yes, Petey gets stuffy noses on a pretty regular basis that don't necessarily turn into colds.

The anesthesiologist asked if I thought he'd need oral sedation. He said, "I think he'll be ok with the gas, he seems cool as a cucumber." I, however, thought differently. I know that Petey has some claustrophobia issues and especially if he feels like he can't breathe freely. For example, he hates steamy bathrooms and insists on keeping the door open. I asked if Petey could see the mask ahead of time to get an idea of what it was like. A few minutes later he came back with a strawberry scented mask and, after showing it to Petey, tried to place it over his nose so he'd know what it felt like. Petey flinched like a startled puppy. That behavior was in stark contrast to how he'd been acting all morning (playing his Gameboy and acting very nonchalantly about everything) and I think the dr. was surprised :) He left and the nurse came back in a few minutes with the oral sedative. Fast forward ten minutes and Petey is laying on his bed with his eyes wandering over the ceiling and a smile tickling the corners of his mouth. Still, he never put down that gameboy! They even let him take it back to the operating room with him. I hope it doesn't get lost, it's actually Zack's.

I'm currently being entertained by the conversation I keep hearing at the nurses station. So far I've learned that one of them though JK Rowling is a man, and that another of them has never had a ticket issued to her because she always cries or wheedles her way out of it some other way. Interesting :) Overall, I feel calm and reassured by how things are proceeding so far.

Now I shall get to work on my FINAL final exam.

Edit: There are too many distracting voices and beeps in here for me to work on my final. Also, I want to write this down before I forget: Petey told me he wished he had a dictionary with him so he could look up all these new words he keeps seeing around the hospital :)

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I asked Mike last night when I was going to have my oral surgery (because I need that right now on top of everything else). He said whenever I wanted it. I wish he had said that last month so that I could have used Thanksgiving vacation as my recovery period. The tooth that is broken has broken even further. Ughh...I just hate thinking what the recovery for this is going to be like. Recovery for my arm was such an annoyance.

Good luck Petey!

"...he wished he had a dictionary with him"

ha! that's awesome.

sounds like it is going well. I hope he recovers quickly. :)

Keep us posted. What a brave little guy Petey is!