Christopher's surgery

Yesterday Chris had his surgery. I woke him up at 6:00 in the morning and had him use the bathroom, then we got his shoes and his coat on and got in the van to go. He did bring along his favorite blankets and his tiger for comfort and support. We were supposed to have him at the surgery center at 6:45, but the roads were supposed to be slick from the snow, so we left a little early to give us time to go slow. Of course, the roads were fine, so we got there 15 minutes early.

When we were almost to the surgery center, Chris showed his nervousness a bit. He asked me, "Are they going to use a big, sharp knife?" and then, "Will they stick needles in me?" I told him that he wouldn't feel anything during the surgery, that they would give him some medicine that would make him go to sleep, and that seemed to help him.

It was interesting to pull into the parking lot at the surgery center and only see like 5 other cars sitting on the other side of the parking lot. It made me wonder for a minute if I was going to the right place. Luckily, I was in the right place and they were expecting me. The nice thing was that they knew immediately who I was when I walked in. The bad thing was that I had left the forms they had mailed me at home, so I got to fill them out again when we got there. I guess it was a good thing we were a bit early.

Chris was being silly in the lobby and kept hiding under his blankets and kept the receptionist entertained until they took us back to the pre-op area. The nurse who took us back listened to his lungs and checked his pulse and blood oxygen levels and asked a few medical questions. Then the anesthesiologist came in and explained what he would be doing. While he was doing that, the nurse came in and gave Chris some medicine that would make him a little loopy and make him forget the first part at least. Chris was pretty funny a few minutes after he took that medicine. He told me, "Hey Mom, I took the medicine and I didn't go to sleep." He was pretty proud of that. I could tell when the medicine was starting to kick in. Chris was lying down on the bed and looked at me and said, "Mom, I'm still in my bed." A minute or so later, he said, "Hey, I'm not in my bed. Whose bed am I in?" He'd later try to talk to me and couldn't quite get the words to come out right. I don't think he even realized what was going on when they wheeled him back and I didn't go with him.

It was about 7:50 when I went back to the lobby to wait during the surgery. A little after 9, the doctor came out to tell me that everything had gone well and that he was just coming out of the anesthesia. She said they'd probably let him sleep it off a little and then come and get me. It was a little after 9:30 when they did. The nurse warned me that Chris was crying a bit, which I expected. He had been coughing a lot too because of the cold he was still getting over a bit and the tube they had put in his throat. They gave him a dose of the Tylenol with codeine to try to help him with the cough a bit, but didn't think he was in any pain at that point. When I saw him, he was trying his hardest to get the blue tape stuff off his hand. It was where they had taken out the I.V., and he really, really didn't want it on there. He ended up pulling it all off himself. They had tried to calm him down earlier with it by putting some on the leg of his tiger to show him that it didn't hurt. He didn't calm down until we took it off the tiger too. Once we did that, I held Chris in a rocking chair and he went back to sleep. He would wake up a little occasionally and ask for water or apple juice, drink some, then go back to sleep. After 10:00, they let us go home. I carried him out to the car and buckled him in his seat and he went back to sleep in the car on the way home. It was snowing when we left, so the roads were worse then than they were at 6:00 in the morning, so it took us a bit to get home.

When we got home, I put Chris up in the guest bed and let him watch Dora (that's what he picked out). I got him some apple juice and some crackers to munch on and left him a bowl in case he felt like he needed to throw up. The nurse thought he might when he got home, but luckily, he never did. He was feeling a bit sore, but felt like he needed to go to the bathroom, so I took him to let him try. I think with the anesthesia and all the IV fluids, he couldn't help himself, for he had actually already wet his pants. He was upset about it, but we got him changed and dry. We had to change him a few more times through the day as he had a touch of diarrhea from the surgery and would leak a few times as he'd try to make it to the bathroom. By the end of the day he was doing much better with that though.

I went to pick up his prescription for Tylenol with codeine and got him some Goldfish crackers while I was there. He was very excited about the goldfish. He loves those and at them all day long. He did surprise me and didn't sleep until about 3:00 and slept until 5:00.

My visiting teachers were really nice and brought us dinner last night just so that we would have one less thing to worry about. I'll admit that it was really nice to not have to worry about getting dinner ready too. And Chris was especially excited when they brought him a candy cane container full of M&M-type candies.

Today Chris acts like he's back to normal. He does say he hurts a little bit still, but he's wanted to go outside and play (I wouldn't let him because it's too cold), and he's been running around and having a good time. It's nice that the surgery is over now and that he's feeling pretty well.