Surgery

Thursday morning we arrived at the hospital around 7:00am. I was tearing up just bringing him there! He had been pre-admitted the night before and getting through registration was pretty quick. We walked into pre-op and I was sniffling pretty good at that point. Dominic kept looking at me like what’s wrong with you mom? We got to his pre-op area and they had already put toys out for him on the bed with some little hospital pj’s to put on. We amused him for a while playing on the bed but when the child’s life women (they work with pediatrics) found out he could walk they said it was ok for him to walk up and down the aisle. So we did that for a little while and they came back with a ball! That got him squealing pretty good chasing the ball. It was adorable and people who were also waiting for surgery asked to have their curtains opened so they could watch Dominic. He was definitely the hit of pre-op!

We met with everyone and then I brought him back into the OR. The two anesthesia women were great and sang “Happy Birthday” to him while he went under. He was so good and only whimpered a little bit when they put the mask on and was asleep very quickly. They escorted me out and as I was leaving the OR, one of the surgeons said, “Don’t worry mom, we’ll take good care of him”.

Keith and I left pre-op and grabbed coffee and breakfast at the hospital. Dominic wasn’t allowed to eat in the morning so we didn’t want to eat when he couldn’t. He went into surgery at 8:30am and the surgeon said that the surgery would take 1.5 hours plus a little bit of time to deal with anesthesia. After we ate we went to the gift shop! We had to get stuff for our little man! We bought him a new book and a giggly butterfly. We sat out and waited. Grammy came by (since she works right next to the hospital) and sat with us for a while.

10:00am: I started looking at the clock more and more. We knew that would be a little quick for him to be done but we were starting to get anxious.

10:30am: Ok, they said it would take a little bit of time on top of the surgery. No problem.

11:00am: Grammy left the hospital and Keith decided to check with the front desk people. We saw the pager work but we were thinking, maybe it didn’t and they tried to get a hold of us.

11:30am: BEEP BEEP! Yay!! We raced to the pre-op desk and asked where we were supposed to go. They said we had to meet with the doctor first so to wait in a little room. We waited and a woman came in. “I didn’t page you.” What?! They didn’t know what had happened but Dominic was still in surgery and they did not page us. Ok. We left to wait again. 3 hours into surgery.

12:00pm: BEEP BEEP! Ok, this one better be real. Nope, we didn’t page you. He’s still in surgery. We asked what was taking so long but they didn’t know. They gave us a new pager and asked us to wait some more. Mommy was getting a little homicidal at this point.
12:10pm: I see a woman who was in pre-op with Dominic getting ready to leave. She was out of surgery and out of recovery and was leaving and Dominic was still in surgery!!!

12:15pm: BEEP BEEP! This better be real or I’m going to kill someone! Dominic’s out you can go to recovery; the doc will meet you there! Excellent let’s go! Where are we supposed to go? It was not quite as straight forward as we though but we found the surgeon. He told us that there was more to the surgery than they thought and it had taken a lot longer but that it went well and he should be perfect now. (Of course he was always perfect to us anyway!) He said Dominic will be on his side with Oxygen blowing on him and to not touch him. He said we should let him wake up on his own.

When we got to his recovery bay in the pediatric area a nurse was holding him. He was already awake and she said, “Boy, he has some lungs on him!” Apparently he had woken up with a scream. What can we say; Dominic does not like to sleep. I took him from the nurse and we rocked. He had an I.V in his leg and an oxygen monitor on his finger. He did so well! They said it was pretty typical that kids would cry inconsolably for 30-45 minutes after waking up but he only cried a couple of minutes here and there. I nursed him and that was great for about 15 minutes when the poor guy threw it all up! They put some anti-nausea medication in his I.V and brought me some scrubs to change into. (They brought two pairs so Daddy got a souvenir too!) We let his stomach settle and they brought him a Popsicle which he loved. He started getting some color back and around 2pm they said he could go. We got a little smile and a half squishy face as I was getting him into his P.J’s so that felt great! The nurses were wonderful and said that he was the star of recovery! The child’s life women came back to check on him and we saw both of his surgeons.

Dominic slept most of Thursday. We have to change his diaper every 3 hours 24 hours a day and he can have Tylenol every 4 hours. I wish they had described the catheter a little before we brought him home because I was shocked on the first diaper change! It was much bigger and stiffer than I expected and it looks so painful! He has been such a trooper! On Friday he started walking around again and playing although we are making him take 3 naps a day and trying to get him to rest a little more. Grammy and Papa brought him an Elmo balloon on Friday which he loves!!! We bring him back on Tuesday to get the catheter removed and in a couple of weeks he should be good as new. We can’t wait!