Thyroid Surgery & The Boys
June 22nd, 2010
Terah has been having thyroid troubles for some time now (you can read about it on her blog). Today was the day for it to be removed.
This procedure is somewhat delicate. Running through each half of the thyroid are nerves that control the vocal chords. Also embedded in each half are tiny parathyroids, which regulate the body’s calcium levels. Losing either of these things in one half of the thyroid is no big deal, but losing either of them entirely can be serious. For this reason, the general plan was for Terah to have half of her thyroid out, unless it was obvious in surgery that it would be a health risk to leave the other half in, or that it was obvious that the removal of the first half had successfully preserved the nerves and parathyroids.
Jacob and Oliver spent the night with my parents last night — an event that Jacob was incredibly excited about. I came home last night to find him running in circles in the kitchen. I had this conversation with him:
Me: Jacob, are you excited about something?
Jacob: Yes!
Me: What are you excited about?
Jacob: I don’t know. (He usually says this when he doesn’t want to say, but I figured it was his pending overnight stay)
.. a minute later ..
Jacob: I am excited about something blue.
Me: [genuinely confused] Hmmm…. I don’t know what blue thing you might be excited about. Can you tell me?
Jacob: A blue house!
Me: Oh, is it grandma and grandpa’s blue house?
Jacob: YEAH! Now you’ve got it! I’m so excited!
He was still running in circles the whole time.
So Jacob and Oliver left, and Terah and I worked on the house.
This morning, we arrived at the hospital at 6:15 to check in. At usual, the staff there was incredibly friendly and helpful. And two of them made connections: one of the intake nurses had taught at the college where my dad works, and another nurse knows his cousin. Living where we do, we were not surprised by this. (You sort of wonder how many connections you’ll make at a place like this.)
The surgery area is right next to the ER, and people waiting for people in surgery normally wait there. Having got my fill of the TV playing infomercials for the morning in the 5 minutes we sat there, I arranged to wait in the cafeteria (which is large and quiet in the middle of the morning) and they just called my cell phone when Terah was done.
I was with Terah for as long as possible, then ate breakfast in the cafeteria, walked over to the doctor’s office next door for my weekly allergy shots, and then waited with my Kindle in the cafeteria. They called, and a little while later the surgeon explained how the surgery went: far easier than they had expected. He was confident the left side surgery went well, and so took out the whole thing — and was confident the right side removal also went well.
I went to wait in Terah’s room for her to exit recovery, and our pastor and his daughter showed up to wait too. When she arrived, she was very tired but said a few words before going to sleep. Our pastor gave the two of us a minute before coming in, and read a selection from Psalm 139 before leaving.
I then mostly waited with my Kindle some more until she woke up. I brought back some lunch from the cafeteria, and eventually Terah woke up. We chatted just a bit (it was mostly me talking). I went to pick up the boys, and brought them to the hospital. They were glad to see her.
But then, the dilemma: I had promised Jacob that we would eat in the “hospital restaurant”, but it was only 4 and they didn’t start serving supper until 5. Jacob somehow remembered that we “went exploring” in the hospital when Oliver was born 11 months ago, and had been talking about doing this already. So off we went: Jacob sometimes “helping” me push Oliver’s stroller, sometimes running on ahead, enjoying himself and spelling out letters on big signs on the walls. We got a whole bunch of smiles and compliments. Oliver was laughing, and Jacob was happy and well-behaved. We went towards the cafeteria at 4:30 and I got Jacob some of their free lemonade. He was complaining about not eating, and I remembered that he noticed a nurse walking out of there with an ice cream cone while we were exploring.
Obviously the soft-serve machine was already up, so I got him and me ice cream cones. I’m sure he’ll be talking about the hospital ice cream for days. Anyhow, it took him about half an hour to eat it, so it was perfect timing for supper. We ate, went back to see Terah, and then headed out. I do believe that these may be the only two boys I know of that actually think of a hospital as a fun place to go. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if Jacob asks to go back there.
Both boys fell asleep on the way home. Jacob, unfortunately, had a rather significant accident, possibly due to the large amounts of free lemonade he insisted on drinking. And it was hot outside. So I carried Jacob in, and he sort of groggily looked at me. I suggested he take a nap on the rug in the kitchen (his room is upstairs) while I bring Oliver in. He sort of collapsed onto the rug and was back asleep a few seconds later. I got Oliver in, and brought down new shorts and an overnight pullup for Jacob. Put them on, had him use the toilet, and got him in bed. By that time, Oliver was awake and hungry. So I got him fed, and neither one of them quite went to sleep easily — but they did. I watered the flowers and garden, did a load of laundry, etc.
Jacob had been worried about the surgery, though had trouble verbalizing it. I think he’s better about it now, though some of his trouble falling asleep tonight was probably still worry about that. Hopefully he’ll be better once Terah is back home, which should hopefully be tomorrow.
Categories: Family
