I'm actually sitting here writing from my 5th day in a hospital room. It's not where we expected to be at nearly two months after his surgery. It is currently August 23, 2018.
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I never had a chance to finish that post. Things were chaotic, scary, and stressful. My son ended up with a very, VERY bad staff infection. (Which I later found out was the worst infection they have ever seen.) To be honest, I thought he was going to die. I asked every nurse and doctor if I was going to lose my son. Both sides of his rib cage were filled with infection. He was in so much pain that he didn't even know who I was. He would hallucinate, talk to people who weren't there. If I asked him who I was, he couldn't even tell me. It was the scariest thing I ever had to witness and all I wanted to do was take his place, take his pain.
He had a total of five surgeries in the three weeks he was in the hospital. Over and over they would put him to sleep, drain the infection, and do everything they could to help him get better. He was on constant IV with antibiotics and other medications going through his body. He was on a lot of pain medication, muscle relaxers, medications to help with itching, medication to help him sleep. His precious body was dealing with so much. He was mean, moody, and sometimes hateful, but he never really complained. The nurses all told me that he wouldn't remember the "meanness". He was just in so much pain he didn't really know what he was saying. It was still very hard to see him that way.
Every day I would see an improvement in him. He lost a lot of weight while there, but by the end of his stay he was regaining his appetite. He was in a much better mood. He'd laugh and joke around with the Dr's and nurses. He had a wound vac which was constantly draining infection and he actually ended up coming home with one. For a few weeks after his hospital stay a nurse would come every few days to change the wound vac and clean his wounds until he was healed enough to take him completely off of it.
This infection never should have happened. Someone at the hospital messed up and of course they will never admit to that. Doctors from other departments that took care of my boy apologized several times to me that this happened. I can't say I was angry, but I was and still am in disbelief that they could let something like this happen.
We are two years post surgery and post infection and Christian is doing great! He was on very strong oral antibiotics for over a year and I was taking him weekly to the city to make sure his infection was staying away. He is now off the antibiotics and doing well. Next June we'll be able to have his pectus bars removed! I can't tell you how ready we both are for that!
Christian is my hero. He has went through so much and has never once complained about it. He never really mentions it. He just goes about life and doesn't look back at any of the bad. Sometimes he'll mention being in the hospital, but it's usually talking about a movie he and I watched, or a type of food he got from the cafeteria. lol It's never anything negative.
I did not write this post to scare anyone. If you, your son, or daughter are getting ready to have this surgery, go for it! Just make sure you express that you want things done right! Maybe use our experience as a lesson and advocate for your child.
xxoo,
Emily
