My parents came up Wednesday night so they could help out and watch our other four kids while I took Ben to the hospital and Bryce went to work. We really appreciated them coming up and the kids loved having them here. That night Bryce and Dad gave Ben a blessing that really helped him be less nervous about the surgery.
Ben and I left our house at 5:00 a.m. Thursday morning. The most eventful thing that happened on the drive was when we saw a raccoon cross the road in front of us just after we pulled out of our subdivision.
We got to the hospital and checked in at our check-in time of 5:30. When you show up at the hospital at 5:30, there aren't a whole lot of people there yet, so the waiting times were really short. We verified all our information, they gave us each an arm band, then a guy came to walk us down to the surgery pre-op where Ben was weighed and measured and then got to change into a blue hospital gown and sit on the hospital bed for a bit.
Here's a picture of him in the hospital bed, watching the TV they had in the corner:
Ben kept making all the nurses laugh with the way he would answer their questions. They thought he was a pretty funny kid. He really didn't like the IV too much, and when they put the medicine into it to make him a bit drowsy before they took him back to the OR, he would tell me each area of his body that was starting to feel tingly from it. He was a bit nervous for the surgery, but not too bad. I think he was really mostly nervous about feeling sick after, but we told the anesthesiologist that he had felt nauseated after his last surgery, so he said they would try to fix that.
It didn't seem like very long after they wheeled Ben back to the OR that they called me in the waiting room to let me know that he had fallen asleep well and that the surgery was under way. About a half hour or so after that, they took me to the doctor consultation area to wait for a few minutes for the doctor to finish closing him up and then let me know how it went. The doctor told me everything had gone smoothly and gave me some post-op instructions, then took me back to the waiting room to wait for them to come get me to take me to see Ben in recovery.
Ben was a lot more alert in recovery this time and just kept asking when he could get the IV out and go home. He wasn't in any pain because of the block they did in his arm and he wasn't feeling nauseated at all. They gave him some juice and a popsicle, then got the IV out and he was able to change and go home. They did give him instructions to take it easy and start with mild foods, so it was funny when he was asking if we could get lunch from Taco Bell on our drive home.
He really did very well this time. He never had any pain after the surgery and was very happy that he never felt nauseated. If it weren't for the big bandage around his arm, you'd probably never guess he had just had surgery. And he did get Taco Bell for lunch.
We were able to take the big wrapped bandages of on Sunday and he was able to take a shower. Here are a couple of pictures of his arm with the tape still on, since we were told to leave that on, and the bandages off.
This first one is the inside of his arm. This scar was worse than the other one, so they also cut out the scar to reform it. It may still end up being big, but they're hoping it won't be quite as big.
This second one is the outside of his arm. This scar wasn't as big and obviously didn't bleed quite as much after the surgery.
And just to show you that Ben wasn't the only one having fun, here is a picture of Abby finding a new use for the barf bags the hospital sent home "just in case." We'd better watch out, she could start a whole new trend with these things.
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