Surgery Day: Play by Play

We drove home from Kentucky (post and pics coming soon) Saturday night and got in Sunday morning. After a day of unpacking, laundry, and cleaning we went to bed super sleep deprived only to wake up at 3:45am to head to the hospital for the quads' surgery. As you've probably read on the previous posts, because they have been sick numerous times this year, their docs felt they would benefit from having their tonsils removed. We arrived at 5:30 am and the babies were crazy happy! Luckily, being that early in the morning, the hospital was empty and the only onlookers were the hospital staff who luckily, found their running back and forth and shrieks of laughter amusing. Here's a picture of them all saying hello to the giraffe in the gift shop window...

After waiting a bit a nurse came to the waiting room with a blank stare... after a moment of silence I asked "Are ya here for the circus?" She laughed and answered yes with a smile and lead us back to the surgery prep area. The staff at Centennial Medical Center was great! Everyone was super sweet and welcomed our chaos with open arms! Again I'm so glad we were there at the crack of dawn meaning there were less patients there. The prep rooms were divided by curtains so there was no keeping 4 two year olds contained. We had plenty of adults on hand to chase them down, 7 to be exact. They had given us "rooms" side by side and the quads ran back and forth laughing, flirting with the nurses, checkin' out the environment and admiring the cool fish and animals on the walls! There was one point I heard a lady say "Well hi there!" it was a voice that didn't belong to one of our adults. I quickly turn around to find Brody behind the curtain of another patient being prepped for surgery - SO embarrassing! Trying to respect her privacy, I apologized and slipped him out from behind her curtain. She ended up asking for her curtain to be wide open so she could watch them all run and giggle!

Dr. Peiffer and the anesthesiologist came in and talked to us while each kid was assigned a nurse. After taking vitals and weights (B is the smallest at 24lbs and Brody the biggest at 27 something) we were ready to get started. We ended up going out of birth order and started with Kylee. A dose of happy juice was given to her and the wait began. Within just a few minutes her balance went out the window, her speech was slurred and her never disappearing smile got bigger! I'm so glad thay had this so called "happy juice" for them. We've had several tests done in the past where they just take them back fully awake and knock them out as they're scared to death and terrified. With this medicine they were in lala land as they were wheeled away with huge smiles on their faces. Once taken back they were masked, which knocked them out and THEN given and IV. Below, Smiley Kylee with Bethany before being wheeled to the operating room.

Every 45 minutes they would come to drug the next one in line. After Kylee was Baxlyn's turn. In no time, Baxlyn was as still and calm as could be. I could hold something up in front of her and she would try her hardest to focus and grab it, so funny! The look on her face says it all...

While letting the medicine take Miss B off to a land far far away, Kylee's surgery was completed and she was sent to recovery. Once awake, a nurse came and let us know she was ready to be comforted by one of our what felt like cajillion adults. At first I was afraid we had too much help but once they started splitting them up, we quickly realized we needed that many adults - huge lifesaver. As she woke up, Kylee onnllyy wanted her Daddy, poor baby :( Here's another of happy Baxlyn!

The docs came for Baxlyn and headed off the the O.R. and it was finally Korbin's turn for the happy juice. It took longer to kick in for this dude and he had a slightly different effect. Rather than lay calm and quiet, the boy got LOUD. He would try to sit up, which was impossible for him to do by himself, make a weird face and do this happy scream thing. You can imagine the lady (who Brody peeked in on earlier) was having the time of her life watching a bunch of drunk-like two year olds from across the room! Yes, we did get video, I hope to make a little segment to show you sometime.

Dr. Peiffer eventually came back letting us know Baxlyn, although ended up fighting him a bit (surprise surprise, right?), had done well and was in recovery. At this point Kylee had fallen back asleep, was released from recovery and on her way upstairs with her nurse, Papa and Nana. Korbin was then taken back, waving as he went, to the O.R. and the next nurse came to give the final dose of happy juice to Brody. No joke, at this point in time I could have sworn it was noon only to find out it was like 9am! Below is Happy Brody with his glove balloon Mr. Randell made for him and of course Dudu (his Mickey) close beside him. He was another calm but funny one after the meds kicked in. At one point he looked at me and said "Boly Hope...haa!" pretending his middle name was Hope and not Baxlyn's. I held him up as he had a silly "conversation" with the lady he had peeped on laying across the room from us. Over and over he'd exclaim "I next, I ready!"

So at this point Brody is flying high on happy juice, Korbin's in surgery, Kylee is upstairs on the peds floor and Baxlyn is *asleep* being released from recovery, headed to be with Kylee. Upstairs we have Papa, Nana, Mamaw and nurses while the rest of the gang waits to be with the boys downstairs. Apparently right after Baxlyn enters her room she wakes up and goes haywire. A nurse calls downstairs and tells us that Baxlyn needs her Daddy - PRONTO. No big deal, Bret will head up, I with the other two will wait downstairs to stay with Brody and meet Korbin in recovery. A few minutes pass, Bret shows up downstairs and says "well, Baxlyn's still crying...". Just like that the nurse's phone rings and again "Get someone up here, fast, we need help with Baxlyn!"

I rush upstairs, step off the elevator and needed no assistance finding our rooms, the screams were echoing through the halls of the hospital so I followed. I walk in and was shocked to see Baxlyn SWINGING her fists at people, trying to rip her IV out out of her arm, attempting to THROW herself off the bed and trying to climb the wall that her bed was against etc. The girl wasn't a little unhappy, she went straight up Linda Blair on us. An alarm was sounding because she had thrown her pulse oximeter AT her nurse, there were people surrounding her bed trying to protect her from falling and hurting herself, and she was screaming at the top of her lungs NOOO! I never knew a 24lb little girl could cause such a scene. I tried desperately hold her and she just kept right on. As the fight continued between her and the rest of us, I happened to look behind me and saw Kylee. She was as content as could be, wide awake with her purple popsicle melting down her little arm and all over the clean white sheets. It was a perfect example of how anesthesia can have such opposite effects on people! Baxlyn eventually screamed once again for her Daddy so Bret was called up. The moment he took her into his arms she was calm, instantly, and fell asleep. Everyone around breathed a sigh of relief and couldn't believe what they had just witnessed!

I head back downstairs to catch up with the boys and found Korbin in recovery and the docs wheeling the Broman off into the O.R. As I went to be with Korbin, I realize the news of Baxlyn's little episode beat me down there and the nurses were already talking about the craziness that just went down upstairs. I kid you not the nurses were more than prepared for another one to act like that, they had ordered more drugs to have on hand, just in case. It was a little sad, but funny at the same time lol! They eventually brought Brody in who woke up quickly and coughing hard. Poor buddy :( Korbin never woke up in recovery and continued to sleep for several more hours once being taken upstairs. By 10:30am all four were upstairs and sleeping, the boys in one room and the girls in the next. They ended up giving the girls oxygen, but just temporarily.

Dr. Peiffer did end up removing all adenoids along with the tonsils. He said their adenoids were very swollen, much worse then their tonsils. We're hoping there will be a lot less sickness going on in our house since they've been removed. He said Brody did have fluid build up in both ears and placement of the tubes went great.

They all slept for a few hours, allowing us adults to come and go, get lunch, and rest a little too. Eventually one by one they woke up. Below, Brody seeing his Daddy after waking up. So sweet!

The meds kept Baxlyn in Korbin in bed, asleep most of the day. Brody and Kylee went the exact opposite and were WIRED! They wanted out of bed and to be moving non-stop. Here's miss back-to-normal Baxlyn admiring her balloon from Aunt Beth!

Here's Kylee...yes...eating pizza. This was probably 4-5 hours post-surgery. Pizza? Really?! A few bites was all she had, but I was shocked she wanted it in the first place.

We finally gave in and the nurse made her and Brody mobile. Mobile WITH IV's that is. Everywhere they went someone had to quickly follow with their IV poles. That's a tough job ya know, can't get too far away because you don't want to rip out their IV's but can't get to close causing them to trip, don't let them get too close together or you'll have a tangled mess, keep up with their turns, otherwise there's tubing around their necks... Sheesh! Mentally and physically we were all exhausted and it was all we could do to keep up with these two.

The two of them owned the halls of the floor let me tell ya. They went up and down up and down. There we're some older patients (grandmas and grandpas - actually not sure why they were on the ped's floor?) who opened their doors and enjoyed watching them pass by over and over!

They followed the janitors around and watched them "fweep and bacuum". It was all I could do to explain to Brody that he could not assist them in cleaning the floors. We took a stroll outside to see the fountains...again explaining that no, we were not going "fwimming"! The two were full of energy ALL DAY LONG. Again same meds, but completely different side affects between them all! I am so glad that all 4 didn't want to roam. I don't know that we could have kept up!

That evening Baxlyn and Korbin perked up and joined our two busy bodies. Together they all roamed the halls while onlookers oohed and awed they eventually hit the jack pot and loaded up on jello and pudding!

Little by little we could get them to eat some jello and pudding. Luckily they had IV fluids because they were not fans of water or juices. They did stay overnight, because of their age. The nurses kept an eye on them and they did well. They were given a dose of meds at 8pm and we all went to bed. Bret stayed with the boys in their room while Bethany and I stayed with the girls in theirs. Bethany and I, thinking we had it easy one having one kid each, saw that Bret planned to put the boys together in one bed while he got the other all to himself...ugh lucky dog. The night was ok. Kylee coughed quite a bit, keeping me up with her and Brody was put on oxygen for a while. Dr. Reyes (their pediatrician) and Dr. Peiffer (their ENT) were both there when we got up in the morning to greet us. After chatting it up with the nurses and a few more laps around the 2nd floor of the hospital, we were discharged. Bethany and I headed home with the quads while Bret went straight to work. A trip to the local pharmacy and we were ready to start the healing process!

Since being home they've all done well. We're doing our best to keep them hydrated which has been a little challenging. So far they're eating a little and drinking only a tiny bit but we've had wet diapers which is a good sign. They all slept great last night but woke up in pain this morning. Once we were able to get meds back in their systems they were good to go, not completely normal, but not bad at all! Bret and I want to thank all of you who have called, commented, texted and prayed for them. A huge special thanks to all who have been hands on in helping us at the hospital and since we've been home. Although things went pretty smooth, we know they wouldn't have without all of YOU! We're hoping this is the one and only "Group Surgery" the quads will ever have!