Loopy! (Understatement...)

Peyton is becoming less of a tangle-hazard bit by bit. The nose tube and the stomach drain tube came out Saturday afternoon, and I have to admit, the experience is one that will make me smile for a long time (I'll apologize to Peyton when he can understand it better!). Peyton was dreading taking both of the above out for days and would have preferred Saturday drop off the map so he wouldn't have to get them out. You would think he would have been happy to be rid of them, but he was more afraid of the pain involved than he was motivated by the result. As suggested in my last post, the first words out of his mouth yesterday morning were, "Do we have to take my tummy tube out today Mommy?" It was difficult to distract him after that, even though I didn't answer one way or the other. I said we would have to talk to the doctor (I didn't realize how this would influence his opinion of the dr. - see below for corresponding story). As Peyton was so concerned about the procedure, the team decided it would be best to give him a dose of a relaxant to make him calm enough. He would get just enough to relax him, but not enough to knock him out.


About 12:00 yesterday afternoon the anesthesiologist came in with a couple of nurses and Peyton started to get suspicious. Fortunately the anesthesiologist worked quickly and it was only a couple of minutes before Peyton was no longer concerned about all the people standing around his bed. There were at least 7 of us in there, most with the purpose of helping in case something went haywire with the anesthetic, but some of us in there to watch Peyton's reaction. It wasn't long after the anesthetic went in when Peyton noticed the cards on his closet door "floating around the earth." Shortly after that his "eyes got dizzy." Then he started to wink one eye at a time and he decided it was magic that everything was dizzy when both eyes were open, but seemed to hold still when he winked. He thought the anesthesiologist was a magician. When we asked him how many eyes Mommy had he said, "4. No wait. Lots of eyes! They are moving too! And there is one on your forehead!" He tried to touch them and kept touching my eyebrows and forehead. He spent a little time reaching for things floating in the sky after that. The nurses liked his reaction at the start the best - first he just growled, followed by an unprovoked giggle, then he kept laughing at nothing. I think it was the most relaxed and silliest they had seen him this whole stay. It was a nice break, but I don't think I have ever seen anything so strange. Once I put aside the typical mommy concerns, I couldn't help but laugh at his reaction. It was a relief that he didn't freak out when they took the two tubes out. He definitely noticed, and reached for both to intervene, but due to his slowed reaction time he got there a couple seconds after the tubes had exited. He almost got the nose tube, but the anesthesiologist was just a hair quicker. They wouldn't have stood a chance if they hadn't slowed him down! It seemed to bother him a little that there was a "hole" in his right nostril after they took it out too - he stuck his finger up there curiously and just left it there for a couple minutes... I'm not even going to try to explain that affect! After a while of random babbling with slowed, but very intentional speech I finally convinced him sleep was a good thing. Jordan and I waited with anticipation to see what he would remember upon waking, and the result was not disappointing. He woke up relaxed and completely unaware of what had happened. Jordan asked him if he noticed anything different to which he responded that he didn't. Seconds later he went to itch his nose and noticed with a gasp that something was missing! He just started laughing with excitement! Then we asked him if his tummy tube had disappeared too and he reached down tentatively. When he realized it was gone too he nearly started floating with glee. He couldn't figure out how it happened! The charge nurse came in at that point and said it must have been "the Tube Fairies." I can hardly wait to hear what the two doctors think of that title...

Peyton was a different child after coming out from under the influence of the tubes - we didn't realize how much they must have hampered his emotional state! He also came off the pain medicine yesterday afternoon and what a difference today. I came over to his bed this morning for the last hour of his sleep as he was tossing and turning a bit in the hopes I could prolong his sleep for a few more precious minutes. After the noise level in the hall hit a fair buzz and the sounds of the day reached his ears he woke up, looked over at me, and just grinned ear to ear. Wow (and I don't think it was caused by my bed head). If you have read any of my previous posts about Peyton, you know he doesn't often wake up smiling! It was amazing! He is doing well today, and if he keeps up at this rate I'm sure we will be out sooner than later. Thank you for all your prayers, they are blessing our family.

Now back to the afore-promised short story... I was trying to distract Peyton from the fact that it was Saturday yesterday morning so we decided to go for a walk. We were looking for a computer that had the "earth game" on it so we set out on our search. We went to the second floor first, but that computer had the wrong games on it. We then went to the third floor, but that computer was behind locked doors due to it being a weekend. I tried at that point to convince him we should go back and find something else to do, but he was determined now, and would have gone by himself had he not been in a wheelchair. Since I was still in distract mode, I agreed to his insistence that we go down to the first floor to try that computer. We made it there and were able to pass almost an hour before he was ready to head back and face his fate ("ready" said with a "Yeah right" tone). We were on our way back up and he said out of the blue, "Dr. W. is a bad doctor right Mommy?" What? I had to wheel through the morning's events at top speed to figure out what might have triggered that comment and looking back I'm pretty sure it was due to the fact that I kept telling him he had to ask Dr. W. if he could eat, drink, or not have his tubes taken out. Everything that mattered to Peyton rested in Dr. W.'s hands! I quickly corrected him gently and then he responded by asking if there were any bad doctors here. He wanted to make sure he understood this well. The emotional twists on a visit like his have interesting impacts. I'm sure I will have more to write about as we go, and I only hope I can provide him the right comfort or the right comment when needed ("right" said loosely). Anyway, I should probably sign off so I can check on him but I just wanted to let everyone know he is doing well, and entertaining us in the process!