Kyle's first week in traction had major ups and downs. The first four days he was in so much pain.On the third day post surgery: Kyle had a feeding tube put through his nose to his stomach to administer him Tylenol and Valium. No food.
One of Kyle's P.A. also adjusted Kyle's halo and tightened the screws. This was extremely painful for Kyle and hard to watch. My husband was so angry that they were hurting Kyle but the P.A. said there was no easy way to do it.
So, that night the doctors allowed him to have a PCA (patient-controlled analgesia) which means he was in control of his pain medicine. He would push a button and a certain amount of pain medicine (morphine) went into his vein through the IV (intravenous) tubing. Only he was allowed to push the button.
On the fourth night at the hospital one of the nurses and the E.R. doctor moved Kyle's head to try to see the stitches on the back of his head. This scared me a lot and it hurt Kyle. The doctor moved Kyle so fast by rolling him to the right side of the bed, but didn't stabilize Kyle's head or the traction. (Kyle now had 4 lbs. of weight on the traction/halo). Then the doctor rolled him to the left side. They didn't position his head correctly after the move and it ended up hurting him a lot which took the next 3 hours to try to correctly reposition him and control his pain again.
So now, Kyle was a little more comfortable but very bored.
By the fifth day, Kyle was moved to another room in ICU. His new room was larger, had an awesome view of the S.F. Bay Bridge and had a T.V. in a position where Kyle could see it.
Unfortunately, Kyle was not allowed any water or food in fear of aspiration pneumonia so he was extremely thirsty all week.
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