I know it has been a while....UPDATE on Tanner

So we were lucky enough to have my parents come down to help with the kids so Tom and I were able to go to the Hospital.  The night before surgery Tanner was doing so well, running, jumping and in such a great mood, it sure did test our faith on our decision to get this surgery.  Tanner did really well with no food and no complaining when we first got there.  We went back into the back and they wanted to get him into hospital clothes - he would have nothing of that....and there it begins!  When one of the docs came in he said that Tanner looked stressed and that we should give him medicine that would help him not remember what was going on.  OK, I said, BUT he does not take medicine well.  His reply, "Oh we are trained for this, and we know what we are doing"  OK, I said.  So they said this " Tanner, do you like rockets ships?, Tanner - nothing, Tanner can we put rocket medicine in your mouth?  Tanner shaking his head, so then they try to put it into his mouth, it comes out the side. ME - You can't give him the choice, just put his head back, when he starts to cry, put the medicine in his mouth, MOMMY 101!  WHEW! When that was over Tom got dressed to walk him back to surgery.  The minute he started to walk back Tanner screamed MOMMY!  My heart broke.  But he screamed so bad they decided to give him sleeping gas right away, and Tom was back in 2 minutes.  COUNTDOWN.  So at Children's they give you a beeper so they can inform you of things happening.  We felt lost!  Sad knowing what Tanner was going to have to go through, and what a shock when he comes out of sleeping. The surgery went well.  3 hours!  it was quiet the talk - we had many surgeons come and just look at Tanner with such amazement.  One surgeon even drew us this picture to show what they did:

When he came out of surgery, they beeped us so we could meet with our surgeon.  He was very excited - all went well. So they escorted us to our room and said that Tanner will be out in an hour. 2 hours later - the nurse comes running into our room telling us that they need us fast in recovery room with Tanner and that he was not responding well.  Good thing we did not have to make our way back through the hospital - we were going so fast and so many turns I got lost even going forward!  So we get into the recovery where Tanner had 3 nurses around him, and he was screaming ( which is normal) but his oxygen levels kept dropping.  The nurses said that he keeps calling out for his blanket, they put it on and he throws it off.  I listened to what he was saying --AW HAA - he was calling for his BINKY!  We had it the whole time - he calmed down pretty quick after that - and we were able to go to our room with in 30 minutes.

He was pretty well drugged - but when it wore off - we all knew it.  he did not want anything to do with the Nurses.  Every time they would come in he would close his eyes, as though he was telling them he could not see them, therefor he would not take medicine and he kept pulling off all his monitors, which had all the nurses running back in. He would not cooperate with them.  Tom and I took turns holding him. Tanner did not know what he wanted - Mom, Dad, Mom, Dad etc.

Sorry I don't know how to turn it!

SO the GOAL #!  We need to get him off Morphine - BUT to get him off morphine and get him on Oxycodone, he needs to eat. HAHAHA!  We tried.  The nurses ordered him anything from chips, to candy to pop, but he wanted chocolate milk.  GUESS WHAT Who knew, Milk is considered FOOD!  Yeah Tanner.  So off comes the morphine, but here comes the oxycodone, By mouth - it does not taste well!!!  SO TIP of the day - when medicine does not taste well, don't pay for the flavoring when you have all you need at home. Koolaid.  She made a simple syrup with just sugar and water and koolaid extra strength.  His flavor was grape, and we mixed a little bit of syrup with his medicine, and he had no problems most of the time.  So about 12 hours after surgery, they decided, since Tom and I are doing all the nurses work - they were going to send us home as soon as they casted him:

He picked green!  They wrapped him, gave us all the things to look for so if we needed to get him back to the hospital.  This kind of scared me a little ( alot)  But we took all of our belongings to the car and then took Tanner to the car.  He was very stiff and you could tell he was in a lot of pain.  He decided on his own to take a bubble gum medicine - that put him a sleep for the entire ride home ( alot of traffic) in fact with all the traffic and ride home we got home just in time for his next dose of medicine, which for the next couple of days WE WOULD NOT SKIP!!!

So 3 weeks he was in his green cast and we needed to get another one to get a clean cast.  So we go to Children's and he recognized the hospital and he started to cry - I guess that rocket medicine just did work well enough!  We told him that we were not staying ( note to self - when you are having a procedure - don't be embarrassed that your 3 year old has a binky still - take it with you - he will want it - and so will you) So we go into the casting room and he started to scream when he saw the saw. They said it would not hurt him - but this is not our first rodeo - he just does not like it.  WE tried to tell them and warn them a head of time - do they listen to the underpaid parent who knows their child better - or do they choose to to listen to their education on what a model child should be?  Any guess? You got it they just said:

ok, this does not hurt him, DAH!  I know that - but he does not!  So as they were removing the cast - a big UCLA tour was going on - they were quickly escorted out of the casting room, and all doors shut behind them to keep Tanners scream to a minimum - and doctors were dancing for Tanner and giving him all toys.  After the cast came off.  They escorted us off  to a "QUIET ROOM"  Oh please,  Well to make a long story short - we got on a new cast PURPLE!  But his leg looks great - When the cast was removed it was alarming to see such a straight leg.  It was beautiful.  I did get to see all the dried on blood, and tape that was keeping his leg closed where they cut into his leg 3 times.  They did a great job!  We now have 3 more weeks before Tanner gets his cast off and starts to walk again.  We can't wait - and I know Tanner can't wait either.  He has been crawling and trying to walk ( they casted it at a bent 90 degrees ) so he can't walk even if he tried really hard.  We are grateful for Tanner and that he is handling this well. I know Tom and I are getting a real upper body work out carrying him all around.  But we will take that any day!