Hello! Hey, it’s Me.

Colin’s Surgery

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers during Colin’s
surgery today. All is well! He is doing fine.

We got to the hospital this morning around 7:25 a.m.
and were quickly registered and taken by to pre-op.
We were settled into our pre-op cubby by 8 a.m. Colin
was totally uninterested in ANYTHING in the children’s
pre-op room, preferring to fuss, whine and beg to
nurse or to eat for most of the morning. He did spend
about 10 minutes playing in their little play room,
but his hunger was too great to focus on anything for
long.

Around 9 a.m., he was given an oral sedative, which
make him giggle a lot! It made him quite groggy, too,
which was a welcomed change from the fuss-monster he
had been for the first hour. He relaxed in a carrier
and watched a bit of television. Between 9:00 and
9:30, we were visited by both the anesthesiologist and
our doctor. We discussed pain management techniques,
and opted against getting him a caudal for pain
management, but instead opted for an injection of
local anesthesia at the two incisions.

Around 9:30, he was taken into surgery and our child
life specialist led us to the waiting room. Colin was
fine with being wheeled away by the three nurses until
he was about 1/2 way down the hall; then he started
crying. This, of course, set off my tears, too.
Luckily the sedative they give him prior to surgery
doesn’t allow them to remember any of this.

He was in surgery for about an hour and 45 minutes -
the LONGEST hour and 45 minutes OF MY LIFE! Chris and
I did a bit of reading and a bunch of pacing while he
was in surgery. He was put under a general anesthesia
and was intubated with a breathing tube.

The doctor repaired his umbilical hernia first with a
small, curved incision under his belly button. He
said the muscle was being held open by a thick layer
of fatty tissue that looked like a mushroom. They
pushed it back in and stitched that muscle. While
open, the doctor scoped both the right and left sides
of the inguinal muscle. We have this great photo of
Colin’s muscle on the left side (which was perfectly
hole-less). Unfortunately the photos of the right
side were dark.

The doctor then cut a small incision in Colin’s groin
area and “dissected” the pouch of fluid that was
passing in and out through the whole in the muscle.
He put a couple of stitches in the muscle to close the
hernia.

He was brought into recovery around 11:35 a.m. and
Chris and I were back with him by about 11:45 a.m. He
was sleeping when we got to him aided with a bit of
oxygen blowing in his face. He woke up quite fussy
and disoriented. He was VERY thirsty and downed two
cups of juice. He was in and out for the next 45
minutes that we hung around. The nurse took out his
IV after he took a few sips, and shortly after that,
we were discharged. We got home around 1:00 p.m.

He nursed and quickly fell asleep. He’s starting to
have a little soreness now, so we’ve given him some
Motrin. The doctor prescribed us some Tylenol #3, so
we might give him a dose of that at bedtime. He
hasn’t been interested in eating yet, but he has been
interested in nursing. He has two little bandages on
his belly button and in his groin area in the shape of
a duck and a dolphin. He’s obsessed with the bandage
on his hand where is IV was, pointing it out to be
several times and saying, “Bobo deyer” (i.e. Boo boo
there). I’m sure we’ll hear a lot about this “bobos”
over the next couple of days.

Overall we are pleased. He still has a few sticky
pads on his chest and is groggy, but he’s doing well.
The doctor expects him to be a bit sleepy tomorrow -
mostly if we decide to give him more Tylenol #3 - but
back to his old self within 24 hours. The current
challenge: to keep him calm and quiet for two weeks!