Surgery day is upon us... any positive thoughts, good vibes, prayers, etc that you can send up for my sweet boy will be much appreciated!
Will post an update here later...
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Surgery went well ... Owen is doing good.
He's tired an emotional from the anesthesia, but he's doing well.
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For those who have no idea what surgery I'm talking about...
He had surgery on a gliding / undescended testicle and a hernia.
When he was born, one of his testes was difficult to find. We were told to monitor it, and if at a year it was still undetectable, we'd discuss our options. Well, as far as I can remember, it was found. I know that sounds horrible... "as far as I can remember". I'm his Mother, right? I should know, right? But no, I can't be certain. I am certain, however, that his dr stopped worrying about it, and options were never discussed, so I have to assume that yes, we did find it. Right? Ugh, I don't know. I can't remember. Anyway, we noticed back in December that it was again (or still?) not descended. We had him looked at by a urologist, who found the testicle not too far up in his groin, was able to maneuver it down into the scrotum, but upon releasing it, it would quickly withdraw back up into the groin. He recommended surgery.
Me, being the anti-dr kind of person that I am, started researching. The difference between a gliding testicle and an undescended testicle. From what I read, a gliding testicle is able to be located and maneuvered down into the scrotum. Surgery is not recommended for gliding testicles, as they are only caused by a hyperactive cremaster muscle, and they very often will correct themselves during puberty. Upon further reading, I read that a gliding testicle, once maneuvered into the scrotum, should remain in the scrotum until that cremaster muscle is "tested" (ie... lightly brushing the inner thigh). Owens testicle would retreat immediately back into the groin after releasing it, without triggering the cremaster muscle, so it didn't *sound* like his was a gliding testicle ... but since surgery was involved, I wanted a second opinion anyway.
Second opinion ... surgery was recommended.
Can I just say, as demented as this might sound, I'm kind of glad there was a hernia that needed to be repaired (hernias are very common with undescended testicles). I was absolutely torn about whether or not to opt for the surgery until we found out about the hernia. In my mind, it turned from an optional procedure, into a necessary one... and that made all the difference.
So, now that you're all caught up... onto surgery day!
I was so nervous - Owen was hungry! lol
We had to wait for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours before they called us back to prep.
What do you do with some time to kill...
And when you get tired of doing the pulling...
Of course some pre-surgery snuggles with Mama are always in order...
They finally called us back. We spoke with the Dr. He again went over everything that was going to happen, what to expect, etc.
Owens stats were taken...
He dressed into his hospital gown...
and he took some pics with Mommy and Daddy...
We were in the prep room for about 45 minutes. One by one, we talked with each dr and nurse that would be in the operating room. Procedures explains, questions answered. We talked as a family, joked, laughed, snuggled ...
before one last brotherly hug was given...
and he was wheeled away...
About 2 second after this picture was taken - my tears were finally able to be released. It's not easy watching your baby being taken away. I've always had a compassionate heartache for Mothers that have had to endure such a scene ... it has grown 10 fold. Such strong, strong women!
2 hours. Surgery would take approx 2 hours. What was I supposed to do to stay occupied for TWO HOURS!!!
We went to a different area in the hospital so the other two boys could eat. We sat, talked, worried, and played while we waited for that special little beeper they gave us to go off and give us updates. The first time the beeper went off, I jumped and was looking around like "WTH is that"?! It took a good 30 seconds to actually pinpoint the sound, and make sense of it. 30 seconds doesn't sound like a lot of time, I know, but go ahead and set an alarm off and count to 30. It's not as fast as you'd think! lol.
The first alert was to tell us that surgery had started, and was going well.
Whew.
About an hour later, right after Nick took the other two boys to the bathroom, the beeper went off again. This time it only took about 2-3 seconds to realize what it was. Progress! lol.
surgery complete, please return to waiting room
is what the msg read.
My heart sank! I mean, it really sank hard.
"it has only been an hour. Wasn't it supposed to take 2?
What was wrong? What happened?
Why was surgery over so quickly?
OMG, what happened?
Nick, where is Nick?
We have to go NOW - where is NICK!?
In the bathroom, he's in the bathroom, Where.The.Hell is the bathroom"?
Yea, so, I wasn't really in a calm and collected state of mind, was I?
Nick and the boys came back from the bathroom, I already had everything packed up, and we went back to the waiting room. We sat in the consult area where the Dr came in to talk to us. He explained that surgery went very well. Owens hernia was quite bad (disected in two places), but everything went better then could be expected, and no recovery problems were anticipated.
Finally, after 20 minutes, they brought us back to our little monkey ... completely conked out. The nurse said he had just woken a minute ago, asked for a little water, and then fell right back asleep (before even getting the water). Poor sweetie. He was mostly sleeping for the next hour and a half in recovery, waking just for brief moments to shift, or see where he was...
It was finally time to go home!!!!!
We set him up in the hospital wagon...
and with Biggest Brother doing the pulling; off we went...
it was a tough ride...
Just a two hour drive, and we'll finally be home
He couldn't wait that long ...
the update was very informative Meli, I know how that feels, when Anthony got his appendix taken out, it happened so fast, I had no time to prepare myself, but watching him get wheeled away, made my heart sink for a quick minute...you did great too! I love how your boys just love and support each other, one of the best lessons your kids could ever learn, you should be proud of all 3, and of course you are : )
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