Surgery

I haven't blogged in a really long time...but I have a good excuse! We've been out of town for the last week and a half and were pretty busy while we were gone. To be honest, I'd kind of like to forget about last week. But I'm going to recap it while it's still fresh in my mind because this is my scrapbook and I don't want to leave out any of our big events.

Noah was born with hypospadias and last Monday we had an appointment with the Pediatric Urologist in Memphis who was going to perform his surgery to correct it. Poor little guy had no idea what was coming and probably just thought he was on a fun little vacation. He loved staying at the hotel and especially riding on the luggage cart.

Ahhh...just relaxing on the bed after a long day of driving.

So his surgery was scheduled for 7:30am the following morning at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital. Of course I was nervous about it because any time your baby has to be put to sleep and operated on, that makes a mama nervous! But we were told it was a fairly simple procedure that is normally done on an outpatient basis. However, his was more severe than the normal case and since we live so far away from Memphis the doctor said he'd feel more comfortable keeping us overnight in the hospital to make sure everything goes ok. So we got to the hospital at 6:00 that morning. These were the only pics we got of him in his hospital gown before his surgery.

He finally went back for surgery at 7:30 and it lasted for 3 hours. When we got the call that he was out and we could go see him in the recovery room, I was so nervous. I knew that the surgery had gone well, but I really didn't want to see him in pain. As soon as we got in there to see him, he was frantic waking up from the anesthesia and was hoarse from the breathing tube that had been down his throat but steadily crying and trying to get out of his bed. And as soon as Jeff picked him up, his IV managed to rip out of his hand and blood went everywhere. I almost passed out! I really don't deal well with that kind of thing. So then they told us they were going to have to put another IV in him while he's awake which I was really hoping wouldn't have to happen. I told the nurse I didn't think I could stay in the room to watch so I sent Jeff's dad in with Jeff to be with him for this. Thank goodness for Jeff. He was my rock and never left Noah's side the entire time even when I was panicking about the whole IV thing. Anyways, the anesthesiologist had to come back to put his IV in because the nurse couldn't get it and he ended up making Jeff and his dad leave because he said they didn't want to be there for that. I think they had to restrain him so he couldn't move and put the IV in his foot, then they taped it to this board and wrapped it with this cast-looking thing so he couldn't pull it out. Poor guy...just woke up from surgery and you know he's hurting and then everybody starts poking him with needles. We finally got to bring him out of the recovery room into our regular room so everyone could see him and he was so pitiful. I just hate seeing my baby so drugged up and unhappy. He was pretty much upset and hurting and crying the rest of the day and night and Jeff and I had to take turns sleeping while holding him in the hospital all night because he wouldn't let us put him down. I think he was traumatized! This is how he slept half the night...and the other half with me.

He woke up the next morning with 103 degree fever so I was really nervous that he might have gotten an infection from the surgery. But after a big dose of Tylenol and several hours, his temp came back down. He was still pretty miserable though. We were finally able to get the bladder spasms that had kept us up half the night under control with some new medicine from our nurse. He spent most of the day in my mom's arms. He was very unhappy with pretty much everyone else including Jeff and I. Thank goodness we got the chance to let him ride in the little wagon.

Needless to say we were so happy when we finally got to go home (to my parent's house) and Noah was glad to get out of there for sure! He wasn't able to walk until about Friday or Saturday, so we were very excited when he finally started moving around again. And even happier when we went to Memphis again the next Monday to get his stent that he had to keep in after surgery taken out. We were so thankful for all the prayers and thoughtful presents and phone calls and messages from everyone and are so thankful that the surgery was a success and it is hopefully all behind us now! And most of all, we're thankful that our little guy is back to his old self and feeling much, much better now! I pray every day for all the children and their families who aren't so lucky and who have much more serious surgeries or illnesses and have to stay in the hospital for weeks or months at a time and endure so much more than anyone ever should have to. It's heartbreaking to think about and I count my blessings every day that we have a healthy little boy at home with us.