Post Op - Day 3

Day 3

They gave Riley an epidural during his surgery to manage his pain for 4 days, which will keep his torso numb so the pain isn’t as bad.  However, that also means a foley/catheter. This is an amazing way to control the pain but the side effects for Riley have been intense itching. It also makes his legs numb so he can’t walk. The only solution for this is of course to take out the epidural or not give him as much meds through it. But it’s just too early, he would be in too much pain. So for now, he sits on the edge of the bed or he get’s to go for rides in a wheel chair! It is very painful when he is moved so we only do that a couple of times a day. And every time I just cringe as he squeezes my hand. We usually give him a dbl dose of pain meds, Tylenol and a valium to try to ease the pain. After we get done with 10 minutes of this he is exhausted and usually goes to sleep for a couple of hours. The reason for this is so he doesn’t get pneunomia.

He has a tube down his nose to suck out all the contents in his belly because his intestines are still healing and they can’t have anything going through them for a couple of days. This is not going over very well with him, he wants a drink of water, chocolate milk and a corn dog!!

His incision is about 8 to 10 inches long and has a drain inserted next to that to help drain fluid.

We’ve been watching his urine really closely. It looks awesome!! It is a good color and there’s a good amount. That means his only kidney is working absolutely wonderfully! Yay!!

Riley has been so super amazing during this whole process. I can’t believe how well he has done. I am so proud of him.

Today we were hoping to take out the tube to his belly but when we tested to see if he was ready, he got nauseated, so we waited a few hours and tried again….. and he threw up. Dang it. That means his intestines are not passing fluids so they aren’t ready for food or drinks yet. He is so sad, he isn’t able to have even a sip to drink. So he has had nothing since Tuesday night, it is now Friday night. This kills me, especially when I get hungry and get to go eat. We have to tell him were “just running down stairs” because if we say were going to eat, he’ll start to cry.

His favorite thing to do today is watch Wreck it Ralph and Scooby Doo! We’ve watched them….just a few times!!

I have been on cloud nine since he got out of surgery, just so relieved the tumor is out! But today I had a little fall. One of our wonderful oncologist’s came to see us today Dr. Sato, and she gave us some preliminary reports. She said they think he has stage 2 or 3 cancer, which means the same amount of chemo, but if he has stage 3, he also has to do radiation. This brought me back into reality and my stomach just ached and made me pretty emotional. I know this is what we have to do but it’s so not real. We will get all the results and know a firm game plan Monday evening, so I’m nervous for that but I just want it to get started so we can get it over with.

We have amazing nurses and different doctors that come to check on us several times a day. I love this hospital and am so blessed to have the best taking care of my baby!

It's really painful for Ri to get in his wheelchair.