healing.

Our scheduled arrival time at the surgery center was 6:30 a.m. and, thanks to a very sleepless night, we got there early. An early time slot was a blessing because Nathan immediately demands breakfast as soon as he wakes up, so we circumvented that battle by taking him directly from bed to the car. We tried to prep Nate as best we could, but how do you tell a three year old that he's having surgery? I went with "we're going to go see your doctor, you're going to take a little nap, and then when you wake up your booboo will be fixed, but might hurt a little bit".

Before Surgery: 
Arrived at the surgery center, checked in, and the nurses whisked us back to pre-op in minutes. Nathan promptly received a stuffed tiger, stickers, a coloring book with crayons, and new hospital clothes to change into. Once we got Nate changed into his hospital gown, he spent the remaining time trying to disrobe while Chris and I had our last minute questions fielded by the surgeon and anestheseiologist.

Nate truly was happy with all of the attention, little did he know what came next...

Surgery:
As scary as pediatric surgery can be for a parent, there are a few beautiful silver linings. First of all, no intravenous fluids or needles of any kind come out before the child enters the operating room. I racked my brain wondering how in the world they would get Nate to be still enough to put the IV in, much less keep it in until surgery. Answer is, they don't! Genius. Secondly, a parent gets to go into the operating room until the child falls asleep. I'm thankful to have had the opportunity to go back with Nate. He was so calm as he was wheeled into the operating room, looking around at all of the people and different instruments around him. There were no tears until they put a mask on to help him go to sleep. The anestheseiologist assured me that almost all kids his age cry and the deeper breaths help him to fall asleep faster.

As heart wrenching as it was to watch him struggle with the mask, Nathan fell asleep in his own little style. He struggled and screamed, his eyes rolled back, and they declared him asleep. Nate then let out one giant roar and then was finally out. The surgeon walked me out of the operating room himself, assuring me that he would take the best care of my little guy. That's the second to last silver lining of pediatric surgery - the staff could not have been more supportive.

Nate's surgery lasted approximately forty-five minutes and the surgeon then came out to tell us that everything went perfectly with no complications. After saying a little prayer of thanks and counting our lucky stars, we spent the next twenty minutes or so waiting for Nate to wake up enough for us to come see him in recovery.

Recovery:
The time between our quick talk with the surgeon and being called back by the recovery nurse seemed to go on for hours, even though it was only about twenty minutes. Before opening the door to the recovery part of the surgery center, the nurse let us know that anesthesia affects children in different ways and lowers inhibitions, which can lead to temporary irritability and crying. And her exact words that followed were "that being said, your son has been crying...a lot".  As much as this made my heart break, it was also the tiniest bit funny.

We walked back to find another nurse awkwardly holding and walking around while gently bouncing Nate who, thankfully, was not crying at that point. After relieving the nurse, I sat down and held Nathan as he alternated between sleeping for twenty second stretches and sobbing because he was scared. At one point he sat straight up from sleep and screamed "I don't want this!", while simultaneously ripping out his IV.  Yep, that's my kid! The nurses were fantastic about it though and came over to remove all of the tubing, clean up the blood that dripped everywhere, and to bandage him back up a bit. What a little champ we have!

After less than thirty minutes with Nate in the recovery area, we got our discharge paperwork, got him dressed in his original pajamas, and headed to the lobby to go home. On our way out, my groggy little guy declared "I want more juice and I want to dwink it all by myself this time!" (still miffed about round one in which we held his cup and let him take tiny sips). My parents, who had been there for the duration of our time at the surgery center, met us at the elevator to help see us home.

At Home:
We spent the day of Nathan's surgery having a giant Scooby Doo marathon, one of Nate's favorites right now.  Nate quickly learned his physical limitations - the first time that he stood up to walk across the room he stopped, muttered a resounding "wow", and proceeded to waddle across the room with his knees bent, like an old grandpa.  After a four hour nap, Nate woke up and had some pain so he got a dose of his medicine from the doctor (the only time where any pain medicine was needed). A half hour later, he was playing on his "hope you feel better soon" gift from Chris's parents -  a piano. A Mozart in the making, y'all.

 

We're now four days post-op and I've wondered - did he even have surgery? The morning after his surgery, he tried to go back to his normal routing, but we've been trying to keep his activity somewhat reduced...which has been a failed effort. Final silver lining for your child having surgery: kids are so resilient! He bounced back from this so quickly and, as I typed this up, Nate decided that it was hilarious to act like a puppy and slide down the stairs. So glad to have him up and (literally) running again!