!
The past week and a half has been a very long one for Jeremiah. In the First part of Jeremiah’s story, I wrote about the steps we are taking to help our son overcome sleep apnea. One of the several sleeping disorders our nearly five-year-old son has suffered all of his life. The first step was to have his tonsils removed in order to open his airway.
Surgery was Thursday November 9, 2006 and everything went very well. The very first thing he did after surgery is “test” to see if he could still snore!
On the evening after surgery, it was clear the medication with Codeine in it was not working and that Jeremiah was having an adverse reaction. He was like a pin-ball bouncing all over the place. He acted as if nothing had happened and even threw a tantrum. We talked with the hospital and they suggested we half the dose of the codeine medication and use another over-the-counter pain reliever. Everything went very well…until the next morning.
While dad and sister got ready for work and school, Jeremiah decided that all of a sudden he liked Liquid Pain medication and drank a whole bottle of Children’s Advil. A Large bottle. So, I had little choice in the matter and spent Friday at the emergency room. Thankfully, we stopped keeping Tylenol in our home. Several years ago, I knew someone who nearly died from a toxic overdose of Tylenol and stopped using it in my home. My decision was confirmed at the emergency room when I was told he could drink two big bottles of Advil and live, but one bottle of Tylenol would have killed my little boy.
Jeremiah has complained very little about pain but has been very picky about what he eats. We have found lots of yogurt and cold-scrambled eggs are the things he wants the most. He wanted to go to preschool on Tuesday and had a great time, but on Wednesday, I noticed he had stopped talking.
It seemed he was feeling well and life was getting back to normal until last night. A week and one day after surgery everything suddenly changed. Around 11:30 p.m., he woke me up and told me his neck hurt. So I gave him some Advil and he got back into bed. About 45-minutes later, he started vomiting bright red blood and a lot of it.
I called the hospital and they connected me with an Ear-Nose and Throat doctor, who told me to bring him to the hospital. We had to stop twice on the way and by the time we got to the emergency room he was a mess, and very soon so was the restroom at the hospital. Sometime around 2:00 a.m. he was in surgery again to have a “tonsil bleed” cauterized. We were admitted and in a hospital room around 4:00 a.m.
He woke from surgery perky and hungry. They had him eat, drink and tinkle in a jug (which he thought was fun!) and then released us at around 3:00 p.m. this afternoon.
I still don’t know if he is sleeping better and still haven’t had a full night of sleep. I guess we still have to see if this is going to end his issues with sleep apnea.
Related Blogs:
- Sleep Disorder: Jeremiah’s Story
- Children Are At Risk For Deadly ‘Tylenol’ Overdose.
- Poisons: Symptoms and Treatments