Super Tonsillectomy Star

We are home and things have really turned around for Jordan with her tonsils gone. She was breathing room air for 48 hours before we left the hospital, and having oxygen saturations better than she's ever had before in her life (high 90s to 100% consistently). Her Monday morning labs were pH = 7.4 (7.35-7.45 = normal) and her CO2 was 44 (35-45 = normal). These numbers are great! In addition, she's awake, alert, tolerating her feeds, and acting like her old self again -- only quieter. She was so quiet when I woke up early this morning I thought the nurses had taken her out of the room. But there she was, in the bed, sleeping away without gurgling or snoring, with oxygen saturations at 98%. It was almost unbelievable. It's perhaps too early to tell, but so far it seems that the tonsillectomy has improved her quality of life. I hope it continues this way.

As for Saturday's scare that landed her in the PICU for the weekend, it was decided that the somnolence was from a bad reaction to the codeine in the Tylenol, and the previous doses of anesthesia (during the surgery) and morphine (the night before) probably didn't help. So from this point forward, we'll have to be very careful with codeine, using it only when very necessary (or not at all), and monitoring her very closely when she does have anything that can act as a respiratory suppressant. Luckily, she's just about passed 5 days since the tonsillectomy, and her pain is easily controlled with regular Tylenol, so we haven't needed the codeine.

Now we're just waiting for the stinky tonsillectomy breath to pass. . . .