Surgery, from Beginning to End

It's true, our poor little Jackson had to have surgery to fix his urinary tract. It was something that we knew was going to happen since he was 3 months old.  The pediatric urologist told us the best time to do it was when he was 6 months, the age that he would be able to tolerate the anesthia.

I dreaded his surgery. It made me worried and sad to think of about it. We had it scheduled for the day after Mother's Day. (Speaking of Mother's Day, Jackson let us watch The Notebook. He even enjoyed watching it, I think.)

When the nurse called the Friday before to tell me what time to come in, she asked me if Jackson was breast-fed or bottle-fed. He is both, so I told her, "Oh we do half and half." She kind of paused and was like, "Well don't do half and half! Only do milk until 4 am!!" I was a little bit confused until I hung up and figured she probably thought I meant

Whoops.

I was pretty worried about the whole fasting before the surgery thing. We woke Jackson up at 3:30 am to feed him one last time. Unfortunetly when we woke him up, he thought it was time to play, not eat, and would not take his bottle. The little stinker! We managed to coax him into eating a little bit and then rocked him back to sleep.

We had to wake him up again to take him in to have his surgery done. We got all checked in and they had us put him in these little hospital jammies.

Jackson really liked that wall toy. I don't blame him, it was pretty cool. The nurse came in and took his blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, etc. She commented on how cute and good-natured Jackson was. I'm sure she tells every parent that, but it was nice to hear!

After they got his medical history/vitals, we were taken to a pre-op waiting room where there was a lot of little kids playing in their hospital jammies waiting to be whisked away to surgery. Jackson was the youngest one there, by far. The nurse told me to hide my water bottle, so none of the kids would steal it and drink it. The doctor that was doing the surgery was running an hour and a half late. My heart sank when I heard that. Jackson hadn't had anything to eat all day, and he was getting tired. The waiting room had all sorts of toys there. He especially liked this lava lamp pillar thing. It was his favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uu8SpZb2Tk&feature=channel&list=UL

The entire time we were waiting, Jackson never cried once. He was so good. It made me even more sad to see him so happy when we were about to make him have surgery. He didn't even know what was coming! I kept thinking about how he wasn't going to understand what was happening and how even though it was for his health, we were causing him intentional pain. I may or may not have shed a few tears in the waiting room. I was more scared than he was!

Happy Boy!

He ended up falling asleep while we waited.

The anesthiologist came and took Jackson away. Jackson had just woken up, so he was pretty groggy and confused. He kept staring at this crazy guy that was taking him away. I guess when they take him back there, they put a mask on his face to put him to sleep. Then they gave him an IV. I thought that was a whole lot better than having to fight him while trying to put an IV in.

We were then taken to another waiting room and waited for almost 2 1/2 hours. The receptionist kept coming over to update us.

After the surgery, only one visitor could go see Jackson in the PACU. I went and he was fussing and still had his eyes closed. He was suuuper pale. This really petite nurse was holding him and he looked HUGE. I held him in my arms and there was so many wires and IVs attached to him, it was hard to hold him. He wasn't really aware of what was going on.

I was able to give him a bottle. When he was drinking, his heart rate dipped really low, until it got to the 35s. The noise that was beeping indicating his heart rate kept lowering in pitch and it was pretty scary. The nurse told me to take out the bottle and let him breath because he wasn't breathing while he was eating. The optimum heart rate is 90 for Jackson. His eyes were open and pointed in my direction, but they weren't focused. It was a little unsettling. It was pretty hard to see him that way. I see all sorts of things like this in the ER and it's no big deal, but when it's your own child, it's different. Jackson's surgery has made me a little more compassionate at work now.

We were then sent to ANOTHER room, a surgery recovery room. Jackson was super fussy and they gave him a strong dose of pain medicine which made him go to sleep. After a little bit, we were able to take him home. I was pretty nervous.

We tried to get his medicines filled at the local pharmacy, but they didn't carry the correct dose of the pain medicine. We had to go to another pharmacy to get it. It felt like a wild goose chase!

The recovery process was hard, but not as bad as I expected it to be. I felt so guilty giving Jackson the pain medicine because it made him dizzy and loopy. He would try to reach for toys and not quite be able to focus enough to get it. The pharmacist also warned me about giving it to him because it lowers breathing rate. We ended up sleeping with him for the nights he was taking the medicine. We tried to get him off the medicine pretty early, but it was a mistake! He was in so much pain!

 Zonked out.

Luckily, he is mostly recovered now. He went to his check up appointment and the doctor said we have been taking good care of the surgery site. He was a little worried about how much swelling there still was, so we have to go back in in the next couple weeks for another check up. Shucks! I was hoping to be done worrying about this! We went to our pediatrician yesterday, and he looked at it too. I guess he was a little worried about it, and had us call the urology office today to ask a couple questions.

Hopefully soon though, everything will be back to normal! I do feel blessed that we have insurance and modern medicine to help fix problems like this. I'm also grateful that Jackson's surgery wasn't too major and that he was able to bounce back pretty quickly!

Happy boy a couple days after his surgery.