Surgery

This past Thursday Reed had to undergo minor surgery, hopefully his first and last time. I won't go into details on here as to what he had done but it was a minor surgery that we knew he had to have when he was born. Unfortunately, he had to be put to sleep for the procedure, so we had to wait until he was at least 6 months old. We honestly had been dreading this since he was born, but we are glad to say that the surgery is over, went well, and the healing process is almost complete.

On Thursday, we had to be at the hospital by 8:15am and the surgery wasn't scheduled until 10:15am. The poor baby wasn't able to eat anything since the night before, but thankfully he was our happy little baby as usual and never even made a wimper for food. We played out in the waiting room for what seemed like forever until they called us back to set us up in a room and get ready for the surgery.

Pics with Mommy and Daddy in the waiting room.

Once back in his room, we spoke with many nurses and doctors about the procedure. They explained, in addition to many other things, that they would have to put a tube down his throat to help him breathe while he was asleep. What?!?! We were not prepared for that, but we understood that it was necessary for the length of this procedure. Still, it threw us off a little. Making us a little more nervous. About 15 to 20 minutes before they took him back, they gave him some Tylenol to make him drowsy. As if he really needed that....he hadn't eaten all morning and it was nap time. We dressed him in his little hospital gown and he was the sweetest looking little thing ever.

Sweet Baby! I think this gown is from the 80s. It looked so old.

Just after 10, a nurse came in and took Reed to go back for his surgery. We both cried when we had to hand our little boy over. Thankfully, he went without a fight, which I think helped both of us pull it together quicker than we would have otherwise. Then, the worrying began. The nurse called around 10:30 from the operating room to let us know that he was now fast asleep and was doing very well. She said if the procedure took more than an hour, she would call us back and let us know how things were going. Around 11:3o, we didn't hear from her but the nurse said that he should be coming out soon. Yay, it's over!

Within 15 minutes of talking with the nurse, Reed's doctor came in and said that the surgery went really well (THANK GOODNESS!) and he should be back in our room soon. We were so happy to hear that everything went well! We made calls to our families and Reed appeared back in our room quicker than we expected. He was having to recover with the nurses who care for children after they come out of anesthesia and we expected not to see him for another 30 minutes.

Our little boy looked so scared and pitiful. I am sure he had no idea what the heck had just happened to him. Thankfully he was pretty well medicated, so he didn't feel any of his wounds. When they brought him into the room, they had fed him two bottles of pedialyte. I was glad that he was finally able to get something, anything in his stomach. I got to hold him, which was very hard considering all the tubes and monitors that were hooked to him. Ugh, I cried, Chris cried. It was so sad to see him like that. After letting out the two biggest man-burps ever, he fell asleep while I rocked him.

We stayed at the hospital for a few hours after his surgery so they could monitor him. We were perfectly fine with that!

We thought the day of surgery would probably be the worst day being a parent, but we both think that the days following surgery were probably the worst. It was so hard to see him in pain. Of course we gave him pain medication, but sometimes it just wasn't enough. I am staying at home with him by myself for the first time today and he is doing very well. We have a follow-up appointment with his doctor on Friday. I think he will be fully on the mend by then. Thankfully, through all of this, Reed has been his normal, happy, playful self!