The Surgery

 

Lucas after surgery. His feet and legs are tagged with

 heart rate monitors, an I.V. and hospital tags. 

That's not really the "cute feet" picture any mother wants of her child. 

From Lucas' birth day on May 14, we knew he would eventually need a little corrective surgery before he was 18-months-old. It wasn't anything life threatening, but it was still scary to know your tiny baby would need to be admitted to Primary Children's hospital, put under anesthesia and recover from surgery.

The upcoming surgery date loomed before us for so long that we were actually relieved to get it over with last month. We stayed in Salt Lake for several days. Scott's brother and his wife were awesome and watched Soren for us.

Lucas needed to check-in at the Same-day Surgery unit at 6 a.m. on Friday the 13th. I mention the date, because I went to labor with him on the last Friday the 13th in May. Just kind of a weird coincidence in my opinion. We woke up at 4:30 a.m. and snuck him in the car for the drive to the hospital, hoping he wouldn't wake up. He had been fasting since the night before and we were concerned about him waking up hungry. But he didn't wake up until his wellness appointment after checking in. From that point on, things went amazingly well.

He was happy all morning, waiting for the surgery. He was happy and smiley when we passed him off to the anesthesiologists. He never cried while they got him ready (or so they tell us). Then he woke up happy after the procedure (with lots of drugs). Every nurse we talked to commented on how cheerful he was and how much they enjoyed their time with him. 

I got to spend about an hour with him being so cute and smiley before he crashed for the rest of the day. As expected, he was pretty out of it after that. For the next couple days he slept and needed to be held. But he did sleep and his pain level was under control. The only problem he seemed to experience was that the narcotic made him itch really bad and throw up. But once we stopped with that, he seemed better.

It has been a 4 week recovery at home, with our follow-up appointment this week. We were expecting the worst, but he bounced back miraculously fast. I know this is one little blessing that I will always be grateful for. (And there is his face for the camera again - even at the hospital.)

PS - the one picture I forgot to post is of his binky in a hazmat bag on his recovery bed.