Surgery Day

From Nov 1, 2008

So here's how it went down. We had a sleepless night before the surgery. I had insomnia until about 12:30, and Jonas woke at 3:00 a.m. screaming. We think it was gas. Ed got him back to sleep around 4, and we woke at 5:00 to get to the hospital by 6:00. We met with an anesthesiologist who told us his grandson had had this same operation. He kept mentioning a caudal, and I finally asked him to spell it and explain it. It seems to be similar to an epidural in that it blocks the pain in the lower body. Jonas was to be "gassed" to sleep, then have an IV inserted into his foot, and then the caudal would be administered. When I asked the anesthesiologist whether he was glad his son had the surgery, he said "well, his mother was ecstatic with the results." How weird this seemed to me.

We then met Dr. Woodruff, a medical resident from Little Rock. He looked 18 but had a softer demeanor, not as aloof as the other docs.

Jonas finally fell back asleep right as they took him into surgery around 7:00. I had changed him into a tiny hospital gown (tied in the back) with blue hospital baby socks. He looked so pale and small wrapped in a warm blanket. It seemed strange to hand him over to the nurse who tucked her paperwork under her arm and simply carried him away from us.

We waited in a family area at the hospital until 10:30 when the doctor came in to tell us all was well. This doctor has no bedside manner, and had been very abrupt. When I asked him to re-explain the procedure to us earlier that morning, he was short and impatient. He used the words stint and catheter interchangeably, which initially confused me. It was a possibility that the repair would involved leaving a catheter / stint in the urethra. It would (and does) look like a piece of spaghetti. It's not connected to anything, and the urine flows out of it into the diaper. We have an appt to remove it (if it doesn't fall out on its own) next Monday.

I was so glad to finally have him back in my arms around 11:30. We waited for him in the hall (they call it "Reunion Alley") and when they carried him out, he was groggy, pale, and seemed bloated. I tried to nurse immediately, since his last feeding had been at 3:00 a.m. He only nursed for a few minutes. The nurse then took out his IV, and we changed him back into his footed sleeper. We were home by 12:30.

As a funny aside, while we were at the hospital this morning, our tree trimmers (7 men, 3 chainsaws, 2 trucks and one giant semi with a motorized claw) showed up un-announced. We came home with our delicate bundle in the midst of their work. And the wood for our house renovation was delivered and left on the driveway. AND all of Ed's credit cards were swiped from his wallet WHILE HE WAS WEARING IT. We didn't discover this last tidbit until he went to pick up Jonas' prescriptions.

Boy did we feel overwhelmed. The whole family napped from 3-5:30 and we all felt better.