The Surgery

Preston finally ended up having his surgery yesterday after it had been postponed three times thanks to a runny nose or fever. They wouldn't go through with the surgery if he wasn't in perfect health because of the anasthesia. I'm so glad that it finally worked out this time!

We had an early start for the day.  Because Preston was the youngest patient, and he had to go without eating or drinking anything for eight hours before the surgery they scheduled him first thing in the morning.  We had to get there by 5:45 to check in and get everything set for the 7:00 time.  Since the hospital was kind of far away we had to leave our house by 5:00 in the pouring rain.  Preston didn't fall back to sleep in the car, he just acted tired, but luckily never asked for anything to eat or drink.  Here is is with his bedtime stuff after we finished checking in at the hospital, he was still trying to wake up.

We usually don't let him have his binky or other bedtime stuff when he's not sleeping, but we figured this was a special occasion.  His "ornge binky" is his favorite.  Do you like his rain boots?

When we got into his room, they checked his vitals to make sure he was in perfect health, we talked to the doctor and anasthesiologist (sp?), and then we got him changed into his little hospital gown.  Everyone commented on what a good/cute 20-month old he was.

While we were waiting he had fun playing with the "blocks" in the room with daddy.

He didn't quite understand how to make it work though.  They were magnets that moved with the little wand he's holding.

There was also this table with little trucks inside that were also moved by magnets from underneath the table.

He got frustrated that he couldn't get them out but liked pointing out everything.

Once we started moving them around he had fun too. :)  Right after this I put a gown over my clothes, a hat over my hair and booties over my shoes.  They let me walk back with him while they put him under.  He did just fine until the nurse lifted him onto the table, I obviously couldn't do that.  He hates doctor's tables though and started screaming and wouldn't calm down.  It probably didn't help that he was surrounded by people holding him down after that.  I think he would have been fine if they had given me the chance to tell him what was going on, but they wanted him to cry because he would take deeper breaths which means he would fall asleep easier.  It was crazy to see him crying and then all of a sudden go limp.  I think I would have been fine through the whole thing if it wasn't for all the doctor's and nurses around saying "it's always hard for the mom" and things like that.  They provoked me into crying, but I only shed a few tears and was fine as soon as I left the room.  One of the nurses even held my hand as she walked me back out, it was very nice. ;)

From that point Gabe and I went back to the waiting room, watched the news, and drank hot chocolate for about thirty minutes until they called us back to the recovery area.  When we walked toward our little area we could hear a child screaming and we knew it was ours.  We were well prepared about the affects anasthesia has on children especially and were told they don't know what they want and don't know what where they are.  I was ready for the worst so when he came out thrashing and screaming I figured it was just normal.  I wasn't able to hold him so Gabe had to stand up with him and literally hold him down for twenty minutes or so.  We had to make sure his head was supported too because they said it would be almost like a newborn's when he came out and he wouldn't have a lot of control.  This was hard because he kept throwing his head back.  He was also crying a lot and his tears were bloody (gross I know), so they gave me a towel to wipe them as much as I could without bothering him more.  He did not want his binky or his horse or anything.  Eventually he took his binky and his horse, but then he'd throw it down again after a while.  This happened three or four times.  He finally took it and calmed down enough for Gabe to sit down and rock him.  This picture was taken before the second round of craziness.  He looks so sad and confused.  After a shorter second round of crying and thrashing he did finally let Gabe sit down again.  He soon fell asleep and started snoring.  We had to wake him up to get him dressed, but by then everything was wearing off so he was just acting sick and tired.

It turns out that Preston's IV slipped out before they were able to put a calming drug in him that's supposed to help with the affects of the anasthetic, he also didn't get any pain medication because of this, and refused to take it orally.  When he woke up they were trying to wipe the blood off of him that was oozing from his IV site and he was REALLY not happy with that.  They told us that he actually did really well considering the situation, and they said some adults do the same type of thing when they don't get that calming drug in their systems.  Anyway, after it was all done and we had gone over the discharge instructions one of the nice nurses who knew our situation and knew I couldn't life Preston had Gabe go around and get the car, then put Preston in a little wheelchair and wheeled him out to the car while carrying all of my stuff.  At that point he still hadn't had anything to drink because he refused the juice and hospital he was offered.  On the way home he did start to perk up though and drank a lot of juice.  Gabe and I stopped at McDonald's and got some breakfast because it was still only 9:00 a.m.  Preston asked for hashbrown and egg and actually ate a pretty good amount.  We were surprised that he ate that much because they said to start with liquids and soups.  We were prepared in case he threw up, but he never did and just let us know when he was finished.  When we got him he wanted to go right now for a nap and slept for 3 hours.  While he was sleeping we went and picked up Bentley from our friends Matt and Holly who were nice enough to take him the night before.  He had so much fun at their house and apparantly never slept!  When he got home he just crashed on the couch for the rest of the night, didn't get up at 5:00 to go to the bathroom like he normally does, and still didn't want to get up at 8:00 the next morning.  Thanks again Matt and Holly, you made our lives a LOT easier! ;)

When Preston woke up from his nap (and we woke up from ours) he wasn't crying like I expected him to.  He was just in there talking.  He was actually jumping around in his crib when we went in to get him.  It was amazing how fast he got back to his normal happy self!  Overall, there was really only an hour or so that was hard.  I'm so glad that it was a good experience.  In this picture you can see him a few hours after he woke up from his nap, that whole time he was eating non-stop of course. ;)  If you look close you can see how red the inside of his eyes are (they did surgery on both eyes).  We were told they would look bloodshot for a few weeks but didn't know they would look THAT red.  It seems that they have gotten a little better in just two days though so I'm sure it will go away soon.

Here he is being crazy.  For some reason when he says the new baby's name it sounds just like "Baby Taco" and he thinks it's the funniest thing.

We figured out that's a good way to make him smile in pictures, but he also makes these funny faces when he's saying it.

I'm pretty sure he's saying "taco!" in this one.

Eventually he did get sick of me taking pictures of him, even in his happy state, so I decided to stop.  We're glad this is all over!  Except for the fact that we have to apply eye drops/ointment to his eyes five times a day for the next two weeks and he HATES it.  Oh well, it could be worse. :)  We're just glad to have our happy boy back!