Not what we hoped for (yet)

It's almost 2 weeks since Monkeyman's adenoidectomy. The past week was vastly different from the first week. Since last Sunday, Father's Day, he was just about back to his old self. Huge improvement on that first week where he just lied all day long. He started playing, running around with his siblings, laughing, talking animatedly again, etc. The old Monkeyman we knew.

Unfortunately, he's nothing better than what he was before the adenoidectomy. He's okay, he's fine, but he's no better. We're still waiting for that miraculous, big improvement the doctors told us about. :-( I'm such a worrier, I can't help but wonder why we haven't seen it yet, when they were so adamant that it'll improve quickly and drastically.

About a week before the operation, I went to the shops. The mall I frequent, is rather small (as far as malls go). It's build in a crescent and a rough guestimate of its length from one side to the other, would be about 200m, maybe 250. So really not a big mall. I parked on the one side because that's where I wanted to "end" my shopping for the day (getting bread and milk). But the most important thing on my to do list was the post office on the far opposite side of the mall.

On the way to the post office, Monkeyman asked to sit down on one of the benches. Not long, just a few minutes. At the post office, he complained that he was really tired and HAD to sit down. I showed him a chair, but it was a bit far from me, so he refused. I sort of jokingly said well, then there's just the floor buddy. Lo and behold, he sat down on the floor immediately. It broke my heart. :-( As I moved up in the queue, he just moved with me, while staying in the floor. Once I was done there, he asked to sit down on the benches another 2 times on the way back to the opposite end of the mall. The last shop he did really well and we finished shopping. Probably all in all in about an hour or 2.

A few days ago, about 10 days after the operation, I had to go back to the same mall. But just at the one side of it, so no long walk or anything. I even parked close to the lift. The first shop we went to, the pharmacy, had chairs at the counter. He sat the whole time while I ordered and waited for our chronic medication for the month. I got a handful of clothes in the 2nd shop, fitted them on and paid. He had to stand/walk the whole time, nowhere to sit. The 3rd and last shop, another clothing shop, had a bench inside the fitting rooms. So he came in with me while I tried on various clothing items. And what does he do? He lied down on the bench. :-(

Then, when we went home, he hanged onto the railing in the lift, lying his head on the railing, saying he's tired. All in all, we were there for less than 90 minutes. Rest of the day, he just sat/lied down again. Really not a good day.

So it's up and down. The ups are as good as it was before the operation, the downs are as bad as it was before the operation. No improvement. Nothing.

The one thing I do think is better, is his face colour (more pinkish, not as pale?!) and the circles under his eyes aren't as dark and obvious as it was that first week after the operation. That must count for something?

We did have some (very) good news as well. His allergy tests came back all negative!!!! YAY!!! I'm so very relieved, because I know how hard it is to have a child that's allergic to something, especially food items, or medication. So either he's allergic to some very obscure thing in his diet/environment, or the ENT was very much wrong, believing that the adenoids were swollen because of an allergy. I'm not sure if this means Monkeyman was born with the enlarged adenoids, or what? I guess so. We'll find out when we see the ENT again for his checkup beginning of August.

His iron bloodtest did came back slightly low, so we're supplementing. I'm not very hopeful that it'll make much of a difference, since it never did before. And even when his iron was tested as normal a few years back, he still had this weird tiredness.

Well, there's this week's update. Not really what I'd like to have posted. But maybe, who knows, the next week will show marked improvement. Maybe his body just needs more time.

What a week

I can't believe it's been a week already. Almost. Things are finally looking up. I've been quite stressed out, because Monkeyman wasn't doing as well as I thought he would. I prepared myself for a child who'll be tired and vomitting and not eating for a day (like always after anaesthesia). Then a day of having a sore throat and maybe some tears. Then a child who miraculously starts to look well, sleep well, becomes active and healthy and like a normal 5-year old little boy. Instead, I got a child that DIDN'T throw up (yay for valoid during the op!!), had extremely little throat pain and ate very well, like always, almost immediately.

And was MORE tired than usual. :-( This caught me totally off guard. I did NOT expect that. From after the operation, Monkeyman has laid down. He would sleep 12-13 hours solidly, then wake up and just lay in bed (very strange for him). Usually, he would jump up the moment he opens his eye (the reason why Mr N and Boeboe have to be sooooo quiet in the mornings when eating breakfast before school, because if they make one loud noise, Monkeyman would wake up and there's no sleeping some more with him!). This week, he would just lay in bed until long after 9am. Then he'd move his blanket and pillow to the couch in the sittingroom, and there he'd lay all day. Either playing iPad or watching tv. He'll stand up to go to the bathroom or sit up to eat. It wasn't nice to see.

By Thursday he did play once in the morning for about 30 minutes on the carpet, and again in the evening. So that gave me some hope. Friday, I went out for breakfast with friends. He was so excited, because his best friend was going with. We were there for 3 hours. He played most of the time on the carpet (pushing cars or lying down on the plastic matresses playing with the other plastic cubes). But still needed to lie down (on his seat!) twice. Like in lying down flat. Afterwards, he told me that was when he was so tired, he just felt like sleeping. And of course, he sat while eating. So all in all, probably better than the previous days, but still not really a good sign. :-( It worried me, seeing a 5-year old lying down in a place like Spur (family restaurant) metres away from an exciting play area where his best friend was running around. Rest of the day he just lied down at home again.

Then, today, he played all day long!! Sitting down, but still, he played! He moved from couch to chair to carpet, always sitting, but still playing. He played computer, iPad, Barbies with his sister, etc. I was really happy to see that. :-) So hopefully, he's at long last now on the mend. If we can now just get rid of those circles under the eyes! They're so much darker now than a week ago. And he has this veins that's prominent from the corner of his mouth down to the neck. It looks like he drew on himself with a blue pen. His jugular veins is also very pronounced, which is apparently a sign of pulmonary hypertension. So I'm worried that his heart was taking strain this week. Really scary. So I'll be so relieved when he's back to his old self. Or better yet...when that improvement the doctor spoke about, will become apparent!! He said we'll notice it immediately. :-( Well, quite the opposite happened. So sad. And so worrysome.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day, and we're visiting family. So let's hope he'll be playing around and not sitting/lying down all day.