Happy Campers

Ted has gone from strength to strength this last week and his lungs are so much better. Just in time to return to school next Tuesday after four weeks at home!

Yesterday Teddy and Tabitha were thrilled to go camping for the night with Richard. Lucky for me I had the excuse of little Monte so I stayed home in my warm dry house! 

Here are some photos and a video from their night camping at Euroka in the Blue Mountains. 

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Trooper Ted

No improvement with the pneumonia today but Ted is very happy and playful. While his oxygen was 90% he had no work of breathing and was comfortable so he seems to be coping well. He certainly enjoyed his post dr visit donut. So much for quitting sugar:

  
Today Ted had a routine ECG test and is now wearing a Holter Monitor for 24 hours (an ECG connected to a portable recording device) it’s always tricky to keep the leads connected for 24 hours but I shall do my very best!

Monte who insists he does everything that Ted does, was hilarious at the ECG appointment. Monte immediately removed his shirt and joined Ted on the table and demanded sticky dots of his own. 

   
   
Here he is all wired up til tomorrow. He doesn’t really mind the bag. Ted appreciates a gadget so that’s a good thing I suppose!

  

Good and bad news

  So the great news is that Ted is recovering well  from his operation.  The bad news is he now has pneumonia! He is in good spirits at least. Once his Panadol and Nurofen kicks in, he is as happy as anything. He is a good sport old Teddy!
Here are the boys playing with angry sharks at the pharmacy while we wait for Ted’s third lot of antibiotics in as many weeks…

  

A really good sign

  
What a difference! Running an errand this morning and look who is not only grinning but grinning with a hot chocolate smile! 

What a fabulous sign. 

When Ted’s surgeon said tonsillectomy pain may well be worse than his open heart surgery recovery I scoffed. Now I see what she meant. It’s been a shocker but it’s awesome to see light at the end of the tunnel especially because Papa is due back next week. Hallelujah! 

Day nine tonsillectomy 

Yesterday Ted seemed to really turn a corner. The antibiotics seemed to have kicked in. He had no fever and said his pain was improving. He was certainly a lot happier and more playful. I was so thrilled! 

Late at night I heard a horrible gasping sound, rushed down to Ted to find him gagging trying to breathe. It seemed at first he was having an asthma attack and luckily I had set my own Nebuliser up to take my Ventolin. 

I set Ted up with it and he settled after a minute and I realised he wasn’t wheezing at all. It wasn’t asthma. I had a look at his throat thinking maybe he’d had a bleed or something. The scab looked OK. Good even. 

So I recalled the surgeon mentioning at about day ten the scab comes away and it reveals painful raw flesh. What a drama. I figured maybe he’d been gagging on that. Poor Ted!

He was miserable. 

  
Eventually he got to bed and today he is quite chipper. He asked for a fried egg for breakfast just now and he ate it. He says his throat feels sore and itchy but he seems to be in good spirits. Onwards! We can’t wait for Ted to be back to normal so he can enjoy the school holidays next week. 

Spoke too soon

After another sleepless night Ted spiked a fever this morning. We went back to the doctor for the second day in a row. The GP believes the tonsil bed may be infected now so we have started antibiotics again and if it doesn’t improve in a few days then we need a surgical review. 

Here he is outside the doctor’s office with the yellow balloon she gave him. Weirdly neither of us could inflate it! 

   

Night terrors 

For those who followed our Fontan recovery you might remember Ted suffered terribly with night terrors after his operation. It lasted a few months and was distressing for everyone. He had a lot of anxiety about bedtime generally after that last operation. 

Now poor little Ted is struggling with the recovery after this operation and he is having the night terrors again. So sad. And very very exhausting. He screams and cries which obviously hurts his poor little throat even more. Such a shame. 

I’m averaging two hours sleep a night. Ted is very irritable during the day. I am really looking forward to him feeling a lot better. We all really miss Rich and wish he was here as well. 

Here are some sad little videos. The second one is not for the squeamish. It shows what his throat looks like at the moment. Yuck. 

  
  

Tough Ted 

  

So day three has been tough on Ted and his ticker. You can see his colour isn’t flash. He has been quite sad and sore today. He was chuffed when my friend Lizzie came by with some Ninjago Lego and then his special friend Leo came with some ice cream and he loaned Ted his robot toy. We hope tomorrow that Ted feels a lot better.