Isaiah's Surprise Surgery

One Sunday afternoon after church, Isaiah was eating a small snack when he choked. I've never had a child choke this bad - he coughed repeatedly for about 30 minutes and vomited a couple of times. After he threw up the second time, he appeared to be okay, other than a slight wheeze and some lingering coughs. He went on to take a nap, play and eat as normal for the rest of the day. Four days later, he still appeared fine, but we noticed that the slight wheeze he had on Sunday was now much worse when he was running around playing. It never seemed to bother him, but we felt like we should get it checked out.

After a trip to the clinic on the SIL campus, we ended up at the pediatrician's office. The doctor definitely felt something was lodged in his left lung since there was not much activity on that side. She sent us down to Cook's Children's Hospital. Thankfully, because of their doctor referral program, we didn't have to wait but a couple of minutes in the ER before they took us back. They did an x-ray of the chest (traumatic for the little guy) and it was very clear there was food lodged in the lung. Air could get in the left lobe, but it couldn't get out very well so it was very enlarged. It was so enlarged that it was pushing his trachea and heart off to the other side of the body. Crazy!

After the traumatic experience of putting an IV in (he was very brave and was pretty easily distracted by a book), they took us up to the prep room for surgery. On the way, Nathan asked Isaiah, "Are you tough as nails?" and he said, "K" - which is his version of "okay," which is how he says yes. Nathan then asked if he needed a kiss and he said, "No," but then immediately leaned in for one. He leaned in for several more along the way - it was so sweet.

The plan was that they would give him a mild sedative so he could leave us without being fearful. Unfortunately, the plan did not execute so perfectly. When they put the meds in his IV, the IV busted and all the medicine went into the tissue of his arm, swelling it up. He screamed and I tried so hard not to cry. Since it would have been worse to try to insert a new IV with him awake, they opted to take him on down to surgery to put him to sleep first.

As they took my baby boy away from me, screaming for daddy, I broke down. It was SO hard to let him go, knowing how scared he was. The main concern was whether the food would come out all in one piece or whether it would break into a bunch of little pieces when they used the scope to pull it out. Thankfully, it came out all at once and was a short procedure, lasting only about 15 minutes.

They decided to monitor him overnight since he wasn't breathing well after the surgery. He required several breathing treatments and had a bad cough for a few days after. They called us from the waiting room on the phone to let us know he was starting to wake up and that we could come see him in a few minutes. In the background I could hear him crying for daddy. When we got to him, he quickly calmed down and let us snuggle him. He drank some juice and part of a popsicle until we were able to get in a room for the night.

He went to sleep very well and slept through the visits from numerous nurses throughout the night until 4:00 am when they lowered the side of his bed. I got up to hold him, then, and he slept until 7:00 am.

I am so thankful for the excellent care he received and for his little life. There are so many things that could have gone wrong, but didn't. The hardest part for him was really the 5 hours on Saturday morning that he had to stay hooked up to the IV and monitors - he wanted to play! Before we left, we took him to the children's play room so he could go to town for a while - he earned it!

Daddy and Isaiah in the ER evaluation room. We had to get really creative for entertainment since he had to stay on the bed.

After he got the IV in - the arm brace was to keep the arm from bending and messing up the IV. Apparently it wasn't foolproof.

His hospital bed. His little hospital gown was so precious.

I hope this will be the last time I have to send my child back for surgery - but at the rate Isaiah's going, I have a feeling we'll be back to the ER at least once more. . .