Surgery One

Surgery day is here.  It is an outpatient procedure that comes with a one night recommended stay for pain management. Tues - travel and get ready, Wed - surgery, Thurs - recover.

Pre-Surgery

When the nurse tells you the rules and your child is not to eat 8 hours before the surgery make sure to err on the long side.  We learned the hard way....

Our surgery time was at 12pm (noon). It got delayed to 3pm due to the food error (eating within the 8 hours) and the appointment ahead of that ran late so surgery didn't begin until 4pm.  We had checked in at 9:30 and were up at 5:00.  Long day in a waiting room.....We will do it differently next time.

The procedure to install the expansion balloons took two hours and went easier then expected.  That two hours in the surgery waiting room is like six.  You cannot wait to be done, but you know that first day is going to be hard.  We got called to the recovery room a little after 6pm.  "C" was doing great for his part!  He was laying in a little infant bed and immediately wanted me to hold him when I arrived.  Only one parent can go into the recovery room so I went because my wife was spending the night with him.  This was my chance to have some time with the little guy.   I got to feed him Enfamil out of a bottle to keep him hydrated.  Here's a kid that never touched a bottle, now drinking from a bottle.

The tangible response of relaxation that "C" had when I held him was awesome.  He was in pain and around strangers, crying, the nurses were attempting to comforting him.  I picked him up (monitor wires, IV and all) and sat down in the rocker and *sigh* he stopped crying and breathed deeply with a little moan per breath, then he slept a bit.  Maybe it was the narcotics they just gave him, but I think otherwise. ;)         

A little after 6:15 we were released from recovery and sent to a low intensity recovery unit.  Pain management was the main objective at this point.  About every 45 minutes, and on cue by "C", we were able to give him something to keep it reasonable.

Post Surgery

As an elective surgery this was a moment where big picture focus was needed to keep it all together.   Poor guy.