Severins CRAZY Tuesday

After dropping Johnathen off for his first day of school, we had Severins circumcision scheduled at his Pediatricians office. We knew this had its risks; bleeding, infection. We thought we had asked all the questions, to all the Drs. The Cardios said it had to be six weeks post op, and asked us to make sure our Pediatrician was comfortable with the risks. The only answers I could get to why people wait was because the anatomy was not sufficent and they needed to be under general anesthesia. Severin is on asprin, but he is not an easy bleeder-just ask the IV team. Our Dr. was confident the this would be a success. For a moment this would be a "normal" proceedure. We did not take into account that this is Severin and he doesn't do anything "normal". Everything went well, Severin didn't even cry. We waited to check bleeding, and everything looked ok. I ran kids around and it was two hours later that I fed him and changed his diaper. He had soaked his diaper with blood. Yes I did swear, and immediately called the Dr. I went into the after hours clinic our Ped. was not on call. Dr. Valdez said he knows Severin, they talk about how amazing he is all the time. He tried to cauterize but still could not control the bleeding. After one more attempt using a type of material that would form a web for the platelets to collect on and hopefully from a clot, I went home. It had stopped dripping and was now oozing. If it was still bleeding when I got home I was on my way to Primaries. Of course it was, and we were on our way for ER visit # 3. Thom and I were kicking ourselves for putting him through this. It was totally elective and now he has to endure more. At Primaries they had some stuff called surgicell brought in from the OR. It looked like quilt batting, white and fluffy. It has clotting medicine in it and then it dissolves into the skin. It still was not stopping, so they put more on and we wait. They did a heal stick to get a hematocrit- the level of red blood cells. He was at 27. They decided to admit him. They started an IV and did another hematocrit, that time he was a 33. Last time he was in the ER his count was 51. He still needed to get the bleeding to stop and replace what was lost. The Cardios want him to be 40 and above. When we made it to the room on the 4th floor, they took off his diaper and he looked great. I asked what kind of magic elevator they had that could stop bleeding.With the bleeding stopped now he still needed a blood transfusion. After the first transfusion he was still at 33. We seemed to have caught Severin in the perfect storm. He is of the age when his red blood cells are low as it changes from the fetal state. The red blood cells carry the oxygenated blood around, so when your red cells are down the oxygen need increases. When blood is sparce it goes to the major organs to maintain life, skin being the last, so in therory a skin proceedure should have been ok. The asprin makes the platelets disorganize so they can not clot. They think his body had not regulated to give an accurate count, so he was probably lower then 33 before the first transfusion. They kept asking me if he was more pale. I thought he is a white boy he is always pale. After his first transfusion I realized how pale he really was and how pink he had become. After the second transfusion he was doing much better. We stayed the night so they could keep monitoring his O2, & bleeding-which was none, but they did give his asprin again. He started sounding a little snotty nosed. He didn't have a temp. & his lungs sounded good, so we were outta there! I have learned I am not going to say I think I'm at my breaking point, because everytime I do I'm pushed a little farther. The up side is I know I am able to continue to raise to every occasion, but I'd rather not do all this. And we know without a doubt this will never happen to Severin again- you can only be circumcised once. In the ER Severin and I decided we were not going to come back until his next surgery. He smiled so I think he was agreeing with me. As of tonight he is doing great, his normal.