Back in December I talked about how Lucas was scheduled for surgery, but we decided not to do it that day because he was so congested. We ended up re-scheduling it for today. My co-worker/the surgeon said she could have tried to fit me in her January/February schedule. We knew Lucas would have to be out of day care for a while after the surgery and I didn't want to take-up leave that I had saved for when I'd want be home with the baby. We decided to schedule for today since I'd already be out on maternity leave and the baby would be over a month old.
Lucas was scheduled to have a circumcision revision and a hydrocelectomy.
It was an early, early morning. We dropped Maria off at Grammy's house at 4:45am and headed downtown to Children's Hospital. We got to the surgical center and checked in about 6:15am. Things were going pretty smoothly out in the waiting room until Lucas asked for snack and juice, neither of which he could have. The tantrums ensued. He spent the better part of what seemed like forever laying and moaning on the floor (yuck!). He didn't want anyone to touch him. Finally, someone from the surgical center staff called our name and allowed us to go back into the pre-op area. Today was the first day the new part of the pre/post-op areas had opened. One of the nurses commented that Lucas was the first one to play in the new playroom. Once we brought him back to pre-op, it was enough of a distraction for the tantrums to stop.
The nurses gave us a gown & socks to put on him and started taking his vitals.
Our anesthesiologist was wonderful and did a great job explaining things to us.
She was the doctor who was with us for his eye surgery as well.
We waited until closer to the surgery time, and he was given a mild sedative.
He was already asleep by the time the surgeon arrived.
She came and talked to us, explained the procedure again, and went to scrub in.
While she was getting ready, we turned Lucas over to the anesthesiologist and one of the nurses, gave him kisses and went out to wait.
Ryan and I went to the cafeteria to eat breakfast.
The time went by quickly and before we knew it the doctor was coming out to get us.
She said everything went well.
He did end up having a inguinal hernia that needed to be repaired.
He has a little 2 inch scar from the incision.
They took us back to recovery and explained what to expect after Lucas woke up.
Our nurse was monitoring Lucas while he slept, and eventually at 11, went on her lunch break.
She was relieved by another nurse, who would be covering our nurse's patients during lunch.
Things got a little crazy once Lucas started to wake up.
Unfortunately, another one of the patients came back to recovery and started to wake up before the parent's arrived. Our nurse was busy with that child when Lucas woke up.
Of course, Lucas was really combative/unpleasant because of the anesthesia, but was especially annoyed by the monitors and the IV. We tried our best to calm him down without doing anything to harm him or his surgical site. The most difficult part was not having any assistance or reassurance that what we were doing was what was best for him.
He is a strong little boy and he did not want those wires attached to him.
Eventually (what seemed like forever) another completely different nurse saw that we were having some difficulty and stopped in to offer a minimal amount of help.
She was given the okay to take his IV out. When they did that, Lucas managed to get his other hand free and ripped the band aid off. Poor kid! He was still bleeding from his IV site, so he was getting blood everywhere until Ryan could put pressure on it.
At this point, we're both sweating from trying to wrangle him and keep him on the calmer side of frantic. As the chaos began to wane, our original nurse showed up. She saw that Lucas was still upset and went to go get the "light machine". This machine worked to do exactly what it was supposed to do....calm him down. It had lots of lights and classical music. In the center was a big cylinder of water with bubbles and balls floating through it. It mesmerized him.
Once he calmed down, we were able to get all the monitors off of him and start to get him changed to go home. He was eating and drinking fine. It wasn't long before we got to leave.
He slept on the way home. We transferred him to his bed and then I went down for a nap myself. Overall, he seemed to have a low level of pain this evening. We gave him Tylenol to help with the pain (generic brand, of course, since the other was re-called over the weekend-GEESH!). Other than the drama with him waking up in post-op, the day went fairly smoothly and hopefully the recovery process will happen quickly. We thank everyone for all their prayers and blessings focused on Lucas for his surgery today!
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