Patient: Max Diagnosis: Pulmonary Sequestration

Max's surgery is scheduled for 12 days from today. The only things he asked to take with him to the hospital is a diary. He will be going to the hospital on the 27th in order to take a tour of the pediatric wing and photos of the operating room in order to ease his worries.

Well, Max took his tour of the hospital. Things went fine. The lady giving the tour did really well. Explaining everything in terms he could understand. She had pictures of what the surgery room would look like, and explained what they will be doing to him in order to get him ready for surgery. There are probably some adults that would like to have had this tour before they went into the hospital! They have a pull out cot in the room so that Patrick or I can stay with him all night. She showed him one of the hospital rooms so he would know what his room might look like. It had a single bed in it. She said they are slow right now so he probably wouldnt have to have a roommate. They have a nice playroom with all kinds of toys, paints, crafts and a hockey table. They even have video games! Max was excited about this since at home I am a "mean" Mom and we don't allow video games at our house. I would rather they go outside and play instead. Terrible, huh? At the end they gave him a teddy bear (that he has named Dr. Bear)and a t-shirt with the hospital's name on it. They told him that if he brings his t-shirt back on the day of the surgery they will have the nurses and doctors sign it for him.

Well, tomorrow is the day Max goes in. He doesnt seem to be very nervous. I suppose it wont totally hit him until tomorrow. He does talk about it, and we try to answer any questions that he might have. Sue and Teresa are on their way up here to stay with David and Garrit.

Max arrived at the hospital at 6 am this morning. They put him in some cool tiger p.j.'s and put a spiderman shower cap on his head, and fuzzy yellow socks on his feet. They gave him some medicine to drink that made him goofy and sleepy. Pastor Libby met us at the hospital. Then we said a prayer and they wheeled him into the surgery room. Now Patrick and I are in the waiting room waiting. They will let us know as soon as there are any updates.

The Dr. just came and said that Max was out of surgery. It took them longer than they thought. The lower half of his lung was filled with puss. They were suprised that he hadnt been coughing more and/or running fevers. So, instead of removing a 1/3 of his lung it wound up being half. They were lucky they did not have to cut through any muscle tissue so he should recover a little faster due to less pain. They placed a drainage tube between his ribs they should be able to remove that by Sunday. Once that is removed he will be able to walk up and down the hallway. We are off to the peds floor to find out what room he will be in and they will bring him up there in about 45 minutes.

They made Max get out of bed for the first time today. Patrick thought they were rushing it. SInce he is still in such severe pain. The incision wound up being 8 inches long on the side of his rib cage under his armpit. Well, about 10pm the day of the surgery the anesthia must of wore off and Max started having severe pain. He is pretty tough though because it was the first time that I've seen him cry through the whole ordeal. He was so worked up that he couldnt breathe and his oxygen levels were low so they put him on oxygen. They also increased his pain medication. Once he felt better he decided to stay up the rest of the night! So, I myself did not get much sleep either.

Today they took Max downstairs in a wheelchair. He really didnt like this idea since all the other times they had a portable x-ray machine that x-rayed him in bed. It just makes me cringe watching him struggle to get over to the side of the bed. Ouch! Yesterday when it was his first time to get out of bed it was too much for me to watch. Just seeing him in such pain and the huge bandage on him. My stomach started hurting and the room got real hot, real quick. Patrick said I turned white as a ghost and I though I was going to pass out. Funny, huh? That stuff usually doesnt bother me.

Max is about the same. He is still in quite a bit of pain. They have taken several x-rays and say that things look good. They still have him on his monitors and IV. They think maybe he will be able to have his chest tube taken out tomorrow. He still hasnt ventured any farther than the 10 feet from his bed to the bathroom. He has a very cute room. All painted in pastel purple and clouds on the walls and and a colorful alphabet border. Max says he doesnt like it though because its too girly! They have a lady that comes around called the "play lady". She brings around movies for them to watch or a portable tv that has either a playstation or x-box on them. Max likes to lay in bed and play those video games. He has had so many people call or stop by to see him. He is a lucky boy to have so many people that love and care about him.

This morning they came in and took an x-ray of his chest. This will determine if they will be taking the chest tube out. The tube itself if only about as big around as a pencil. They disconnected him from the IV so that means no more morphine. They have been giving him liquid pain medicine. He sat up for the longest today. Any other day when he has been sitting in the chair or the bed he always started leaning to his right, but today he actually stayed up right. I have been staying at the hospital with him. They have a cot in his room that I can sleep on. Last night I though I heard a noise that sounded like someone was touching the button to make the bed go up or down. But I stared at the bed and it wasnt moving. I called to Max and he was sound asleep. He was also laying in the bed totally sideways in the middle. So, I went back to sleep. Then a minute later I heard top of the bed going up at a fast rate. I leapt out of my cot to see what was going and his head was bumping into the buttons making the bed go up! I quick grabbed the blanket he was laying on and pulled him out of the way! Geez it was like something out of I love Lucy!

Around noon day they took his tube out. It only took about 10 minutes and they did it right in his room. Dont ask me how long it was, because I didnt look! It was unbelievable once they took that tube out because he stayed up the rest of the day. No more laying in bed. He was actually walking, no almost jogging, down to the playroom. It must have been the tube in there that caused all the pain. Now that he is on the move he cant sit still. Shocking, huh? Max not being able to sit still. He is making me a nervous wreck. I'm afraid he is going to over do it or trip and fall down. The nurses said that there arent any stiches on the outside of his suture. They only put surgical tape on it to hold it together and it will come off on its own in about 4-5 days. The Dr. showed Max the fish in the aquarium they have. He told Max how the fish were sicklets. Max said real matter of factly "I know. Thats why they're in the hospital." They said they would come back around 5 pm to take a final x-ray and see if all the leaking around the bottom of his lung had stopped. If it has would could go home today. Wow! That seems sooo fast!

Well, they let us go home last night. Even though there was much protesting on Max's part because he wanted to stay there. They didnt discharge us until about 8pm. They said he doesnt need any prescription pain meds. He only needs Tylenol. He fell asleep in the car on the way. Once we got home Sue was watching t.v. and David & Garrit were asleep. Max changed his clothes and went right to bed. We will have to go back and have a re-check w/the surgeon on April 23. He will be off of school for the rest of the week. He had a few boxes waiting for him at home from Grandma Joan, and one from Pa and Judy and lots of cards. When I took David and Gar to school today Max's teacher gave me a letter and picture from each one of his classmates. Sue read the letters to him one at a time and had him try and guess who it was from. He did pretty well with that. Then he taped them up all over the front and back door in the kitchen.