tuesday update

Thomas is still exhausted from his ordeal. he never lies so limp in our arms. his eyes are all bleary and he doesn't want to hold his head up.

He had a fever of 102-103 yesterday evening so we called the surgeon (the on-call surgeon answered, not the doctor who worked on thomas). he didn't really have any advice other than to add motrin on top of the tylenol we were already gaving him and calling his pediatrician. we didn't want to give him more drugs, so we just let him take another nap from 8 to 9:30pm, then he ate a little cereal with milk, took another dose of tylenol with a bottle of milk and slept from 10pm to about 6:30am. william stayed with him all night and said he cried out a lot, so his sleep was not restful. plus a couple times thomas would suddenly start thrashing violently and cry, then go back to sleep. i think he was dreaming about being taken away from us. also, to put him out, they had to hold a little clear plastic face mask over his mouth and nose. i am sure it was a scary experience having total strangers hold him down (even if gently) and clamp a gas mask over your mouth. he was probably reliving that in his dream and trying to get away.

i was able to sleep from 10 to 3:30am but after that, i drifted in and out, listening to thomas cry out every 30-60 minutes. poor william didn't get much solid sleep. we tried switching last night, but thomas would reach out for him as he walked away and wouldn't stop crying until daddy came back. i knew he wanted daddy so i just let william take him for the night. better that than both of us suffer for lack of sleep. he is taking another day off work today too.

at 6:30am, we gave him another dose of tylenol and he drank more milk. he fell asleep with william and we switched places once thomas was asleep. he was restless again crying out here and there in his sleep. 30 minutes into his sleep, he woke up crying, tried to roll over, and then tried to sit up. he was trying so hard, trembing as i helped him up, I didn't try to make him lie down again. then he wanted to stand. so i got up, picked him up gently and started patting his back. poor little guy threw up all of his milk. he threw up twice. once by the bed and again by the door as i walked to the bathroom. then he started shaking really violently. oh man, it makes you feel so helpless! so i called down to william and we got him cleaned up. he fell asleep again but is still on the warm side and uncomfortable. what to do what to do....

the surgeon that operated on thomas called us around 8am. he had heard that we called last night and wanted to check in. that makes me feel so much better because he was much more concerned than the on-call guy. he said that it is really unheard of for babies to have this kind of reaction to surgery. sometimes adults but not kids. he thinks it is a freak coincidence but maybe thomas has a 1-day flu or some other bug he picked up from another person in the last 2-3 days. the only time last week thomas touched other kids was sunday at church and at the st.patrick's day festival. well, he threw up all over me so we'll see if i get a 1-day flu this week.

thomas has never watched so much tv in his little life! most of yesterday afternoon (when he was awake) and this morning, we have been watching teletubbies and sesame street. we have 3-4 weeks worth on tape for emergencies just like this. i usually let him watch 30 minutes in the morning, but of course, we are making an exception for this. he is so uncomfortable and at least watching TV keeps his mind off how awful he feels. he actually points, talks and tries to clap when his favorite songs come on. a little bit of his old self comes through.

12noon update:
he is walking around a little and actually playing with some of his toys. he made both william and i "answer" a phone call on our cellphones. *sigh* thank God! hopefully this is an upward trend that will continue today. ops, he just starting whimpering again upstairs.... oh well, baby steps.

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here is thomas with a new toy we got for bath time last saturday. he doesn't have any tub toys so i got him this floating xylophone. he loves it! can't wait until we can take him into the bath again. can't wait until we have our old smilie thomas back!