Suppers After Surgery

Supers are an interesting endeavor these days.  

Caleb can only have food that can be drank from the side of a cup as nothing is supposed to go into his mouth.  No fingers, no spoons, no straws, no nothing!

So we've made a squash soup, a potato soup, a broccoli cheese soup... you get the idea.  

Momma has made the boys hot dogs thru the blender that looks pretty nasty, but they like it and as long as the boy is eating, so be it.

So I did a search on the fancy hi-tech world wide interweb for some new (at least to us) recipes for pureed foods.

This is what I came up with.  Take a guess at what it is.

Robby was looking at the picture and he said it, "looked like something that would come out of a cow", although he ate it and liked it quite a bit.

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Give up yet?

It's spaghetti with a meat sauce.  I am still surprised on how good it was!

I've been curious about using meat in recipes thru the blender and now I'm not so hesitant, other than having to look at it.

I may try some chicken n' noodles this week but I'm not up for a steak... yet.

Caleb's Surgery - May 8th, Update

Just a quick update here...

Caleb is doing pretty good.  He's eating good, drinking lots of yogurt (thinned with milk).  He and big bro Robby had hot dog "shakes" for breakfast this morning.  That's right, hot dogs in the blender, thinned with water so Caleb could "drink his dogs".  They were both exclaiming how much they like it.

He's doing pretty good about not sticking his fingers and thumb in his mouth but even so, we still use the elbow braces on him at night as well as using tube gauze and a bandage wrap around his thumb and hand at night as well.  He doesn't like it much but I don't like the idea of sitting through another surgery and the hospital stay after such an ordeal either, so he'll have to keep wearing them for a bit longer.

He does have some irritation on his tongue that does not look good and I think it's probably similar to a bad sore throat.  He acts and sounds like he has a bit of sore throat too. Lesley called the surgeon about it and he said it's likely irritation from the tongue dealybopper that they had in his mouth for the duration of the surgery.

So that's it, nothing too exciting. Nothing too bad although it could be better if the tongue would heal up good.

That's all for now...

Caleb's Surgery - May 6th, 2012 Update part II

WE'RE GOING HOME TODAY!!!

We had an early morning visit from the doctor and he said that if we are comfortable with Calebs progress, that he will gladly discharge him today.

So, we are going home at some point today.  I would expect that we won't actually be released until sometime in the afternoon,  but I really have no idea.

He also took out the tongue stitch while he was here and Momma has since removed the remaining tape on his cheek to hold the stitch out of his mouth.

We're going to go for a quick walk as he's disconnected from his machines.

Caleb's Surgery - May 6th, 2012 A morning update...

Good morning from the University of Iowa Hospital. Caleb woke up feeling pretty spry and sassy this morning.


Well, that may be a bit of a stretch but a little optimism can take people a long ways!


I slept thru the night so I don't have many details about what went on but Lesley said at 1am, he woke up and wanted mom in bed to snuggle with him.  She got in bed then for the rest of the night (we were all up by roughly 6am'ish).  She was up one other time as sneaky boy was pulling the tape off of his cheeks trying to free up the tongue stitch.  In doing that, he lost the little-red-light-pulse-measuring-thingy-ma-bob from his finger, which causes the machine to read similar to flatlining.


That happened to me the day of the surgery shortly after Momma left the room for the first time.  He "flatlined" and I jumped up in a toot to try and call the nurse when I realized that I have no idea what button is the call button.  After pressing several things, all of which probably did nothing but change settings on the tv, I decided that I know cpr and I'll fix him myself!  That's when I noticed that he was breathing and doing everything else just fine.  :-)


So I started investigating the lines from the machine only to discover that he had indeed knocked of the little-red-light-pulse-measuring-thingy-ma-bob off of finger.  I put it back on and within seconds, he was "back".


So anyways...  back to this morning.


Here is the boy this morning:

He has had a little over 4 oz. of apple juice so far and probably an oz or two of water.

He's smiling at my "dancing".

He giggled at me pulling his nose off and replacing it with one of his ears.  Especially when I told him the next time they came in to take his temperature, they'd have to stick the thing in the ear in the middle of his face.

That was pure comedy gold for him!

That's about all for now... other than hoping we go home today!

More updates as we get them.

Daddy

Caleb's Surgery - May 5th, 2012 Happiness, finally! part III

An hour ago (it's now 8:30'ish pm American Iowa corn time), we were pretty much resolved to the fact that we were going to be here through Sunday night and (hopefully) be released at some point on Monday.

However, just recently, we were talking to the new nurse after the hand-off of patients at the changing of the guard.  While that was going on, we noticed that he had his mouth closed completely!  This marks major progress over where he's been because ever since his surgery, he has not been able to close his mouth because his tongue has been so swollen.

Also, his lips and cheeks are swollen as well as the soft tissue under his chin.  That last one makes him REALLY look like a Schmitz, the extra chin and all... well, as much as a small Chinese boy can.

The soft tissue under his chin has softened up too.  It has been really firm ever since recovery and quite puffy.

A few other developments is that we had the nurses unhook him from everything but the IV so that we could take him out of the room for a walk.  We walked around the pediactrics area and out into the hallway to look outside.  We looked at the fish tanks, the blue sky, the art work and found the "Art Center" where we got a coloring book and box of crayons for him.

We also Skyped with Grandma & Grandpa, Aunt Molly and the dapper, powerful & attractive Robert James Schmitz tonight.  It was good to see everyone and I think Caleb enjoyed it too, even though his tongue was still big at that time and he couldn't really express it.

Right now we're very excited about the recent developements although we know they can go the other way just as quickly.  

We still haven't been visited by the surgeon yet, which personally does not impress me although I have no idea what the dude's schedule looked like today.  I hope he shows up soon so that he doesn't come in 22 minutes after we all fall asleep.

So, thank you all for the prayers so far. Please keep them coming!