Surgery

Frank's surgery was this morning, at 9:30am. I wasn't terribly nervous about it until I got the phone call on Monday telling me the time it was slated for. I've been reading a couple of books to him about hospitals the past few days- Curious George Goes to the Hospital and Harry Goes to the Hospital. I've been talking the past few days about how, "Wednesday, we'll all go to the hospital. You'll go to sleep and the doctor will fix your ears, and when you wake up, Mommy and Daddy will be there." I'm honestly not sure how much of that he got, really.

He was in a great mood when we woke him up this morning, and was singing "Bob the Builder" the entire way to the hospital. This can get quite grating after a minute or so, because he only really knows the "Bob the Builder/Can we fix it/Bob the builder/yes we can!" part. He mumbles his way through the rest of it, and then sings nice and loud again for the chorus...and insists that whoever is in the car sings with him.

We got to the hospital at 8:20am, signed in, and I filled out paperwork while Darrel entertained Frank. At 9:15am, they took us back in, and we had more paperwork. We got Frank into his PJ bottoms and the blue hospital gown top. He sat there and cried the whole time. Once we identified to the nurse that I was the parent who was going into the OR with him, she gave me an outfit to put on over my clothes; as Darrel put it, "Look, Frank- Mommy looks like she's ready to go clean up a toxic waste dump!" It was a one piece white (disposable) jumpsuit, booties of the same material, and a hat. (If you've seen ER, then you know what kind of hat I am talking about.) The jumpsuit zipped up the front.

We then went to another waiting area, this one with some toys, which cheered Frank up a bit. Oh, and the nurse gave him stickers, too, which are always a winner. We met with the anesthesiologist there, and Dr G came in to talk to us for a few minutes. Darrel had never met Dr G before, so I introduced them, (Darrel's comment later: "Boy, their styles [both ENT doctors] really are very different!") Once that whole thing was over, it was time. We took Frank's shoes off, and I followed Dr G and carried him into the OR. The OR looked exactly like the one in the Curious George book, a fact I pointed out to Frank...who was not at all impressed by it, mostly because he'd been crying constantly since we took his shoes off.

I sat him down on the table, and the anesthesiologist moved him towards the pillow/head area, so that he was sitting there, looking at me, with his back to her. She gently placed the mask on his face, and held him and the mask firmly. He didn't fight- he just sat there crying, looking utterly defeated. I gently held his hands, told him I loved him, he was doing a great job, and when he woke up, Daddy and I would be there. In less than a minute, he was completely limp- it took me by surprise as to how quickly it happened, truthfully. And it was a bit creepy seeing it happen, and seeing him so limp like that, more limp than when he's sleeping, even!

Dr G escorted me out of the OR and pointed me back towards where Darrel was waiting. He also complimented me on how well I'd done. "Yeah, we get some parents in here...they get very emotional, which obviously doesn't do the kids any good. You did a great job and so did he."

Darrel and I went back out to the waiting room. 45 minutes later, Dr G came out- everything went fine, Frank was in recovery, and when he woke up, someone would get us. 15 minutes after that, we were informed that he was awake. We hurried back, and he was sitting on a full-size gurney, looking so tiny...and crying. As I approached him, he sobbed, "Can you pick me up?" We maneuvered the IV lines and pulse ox monitor, and I picked him up and held him. They wheeled the gurney out and a recliner chair in, and I sat on that, holding him. He lay his head on my shoulder again and fell asleep almost immediately, and stayed asleep for another hour, when we were moved to the secondary recovery area. He woke up enough at that point to indicate something of an interest in a Teletubbies video they had there...and threw up, twice. It was pretty much all blood and mucus the first time, and it wasn't much- apparently that'll happen because it gets into his stomach during the surgery. The scond time, it was applesauce and "Grover juice" (white grape juice, so called because there's a picture of Grover on it).

We left at close to 1pm. He fell asleep in the car almost before we left the parking lot. As I told my mother later, "It was like he was narcoleptic- he was crying, 'Waaaa-'. I looked back at him, and he was snoring!" He slept the whole way home, waking up when I undid his carseat. We tried to get him to drink or something, and he drank a few sips of Grover juice...and yakked all over one of our couches and himself and me. *sigh* (Side note: I think I need a new couch, it's that bad.) However, once I was changing his clothes after this fiasco, he looked up at me and announced in a clear voice, "I feel all better now!!" *giggles*

A short while later, he said his belly was hurting again. I took a chance because he wasn't being whiney about it (With him, whiney + "my belly hurts" usually = vomit soon; statement of fact about belly hurting usually means extreme hunger.) and gave him half a bagel...which he tore into like a freaking animal, he was so hungry!! I cautioned him to go slowly, but he kept tearing into it. He kept that down, drank a full Grover juice, ate a few bites of applesauce, and two chicken nuggets between 4pm and 7:30pm. I think he'll be fine. ;)

Side note: His voice is really high pitched now. It sounds like he's been sucking on helium. (They had told me this could happen, and should clear in a few days.) It's freaking hilarious. I have to work to keep from giggling each time the kid talks!