Back in the operating room

After a lovely three months without a trip to the OR, Ryan had surgery yesterday.  And maybe to make up for all the time that they missed him, his surgeons kept him in there for nearly 8 hours.  Not that anything was wrong, they just wanted to be meticulous and productive. 

We arrived at 5:45 am to get checked in and prepped for surgery.  Two different services were working on him together yesterday, so we met with two surgeons, an anesthesiologist, and an OR nurse before they rolled him back at 8:00.  I made sure everyone had my cell phone number, then I went downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast.  I kept myself busy with a couple of appointments at the hospital and met Teal for lunch in the surgery waiting room.  She brought me Pad Thai from our favorite place, and helped me pass a couple of hours waiting.  At about 2:30, she convinced me to have the volunteer call back to the OR to find out how things were going.  That was good because an anesthesiology resident came out and gave me a good update.  She let me know that Ryan was tolerating the procedure very well and his surgeons were working well together.  She warned me that she expected it to be another hour and a half.  So, I took a little walk and called Ryan's sister to chat.  When I was down the hall on the phone, the volunteer started calling my name because Ryan's plastic surgeon was done and ready to update me.  It was 3:45.  

He told me that everything went really well.  He was able to graft both of Ryan's upper eyelids with skin from Ryan's right side.  He took a composite graft of skin and cartilage from Ryan's ear and revised the center of Ryan's upper lip.  And he released the scars on either side of Ryan's nose, so as to reduce the pulling on the insides of his eyes and across his nostrils.  The doctor was very happy with how it went and believes Ryan will have good results.  He also told me that the oral surgeon successfully removed the cartilage that was left in Ryan's ears and "banked" it under his skin in the incision in his side from where they took the graft for the eyelids.  It will be there for safe keeping if Ryan ever needs some cartilage for future procedures.  They placed the titanium implants in Ryan's skull, two on each side, in preparation for his prosthetic ears.  And they took a skin graft from Ryan's right thigh to close the area on the sides of his head.  They got a lot done yesterday, and even though it took 8 hours, it was only one surgery, instead of two or three.  And that's what Ryan wanted.

Ryan was out of recovery by 5:00, and I walked with him as they rolled him up to the burn ward.  He was obviously heavily medicated, but talking to me coherently.  And not in any pain.  We got him settled in his room and ordered him a tray of clear liquids.  He was starving.  I had to get home to get the kids settled for dinner and the rest of the night, but I took his order for Dairy Queen and promised to be back as soon as I could.  I was back by 7:30 and he started right in with his Blizzard.  He didn't get very far before he got nauseous.  They brought him a little medication to stop the nausea and a little while later he tried to eat again.  But that wasn't a good idea yet either.  They brought him some stronger anti-nausea medication, and Ryan decided to sleep, instead of eat.  That was my cue to head home for the night.  

So, now I'm headed back in to check on my guy and make sure he gets something good to eat today.  We don't know when he'll be coming home from the hospital, but if it's up to Ryan, it will be soon.