Post surgery report...

So, Sebastian made it through his surgery with flying colours. He was awesome and such a trooper. Today, you almost wouldn't even know he had surgery, except that he still has his hospital bracelet on, a couple little steri strips where they cut him open and strict orders to be as inactive as possible for the next THREE weeks!! So, all in all, the experience was fine.

We arrived at the hospital with plenty of time to spare, got checked in, and headed up to day surgery. The nurse assessed him, took his vitals, chatted with us and we learned very quickly, that in our preparations to get him ready for the hospital (ex, they will give you special medicine to make you sleep, they will check your blood pressure, they will listen to your heart, you will wear special hospital pjs, they will take your temperature), we neglected to mention one small thing to him. We forgot to tell him that he would be getting a hospital bracelet with his name on it. So, when this step came up, he wasn't ready for it, and freaked out a bit. The nurse was awesome though. She went and made up a new bracelet with the name Morris on it, for his moose that he brought to the hospital with him. Once Morris got a bracelet on his leg, suddenly, it wasn't quite as scary for Sebastian to get one on his (which he continues to wear today even). He was bumped up and ended up going in for surgery an hour earlier than planned, which was fine by us!! 

The porter came and wheeled his bed, and he loved this ride!! We waited in the pre-OR area and the put you to sleep resident came to assess Sebastian. He has had a bit of a cough, so we knew he might not be a candidate for surgery for that. Well, his lungs were "mostly" clear, so she said the risks would be higher but still very low. She double checked with the doctor and all was well. 

One parent got to go into the operating room with him, and he picked mom. So, I carried him down there and stayed with him while they knocked him out. I gave him a kiss, and then the tears trickled down my cheeks. I met back up with Jeremy in the pre-OR area. 

Afterwards, we waited in the waiting room, where there was a board of patients and their statuses. When the surgeon was done his portion, he came and gave us an update. And after that, you watched the board, eagerly waiting for your child to return. It was sort of like being at an airport. You waited around and watched your child's status go from green (operating room), to pink (recovery room), to brown (heading back to day surgery). Once it turned brown, our pager went off, which was our queue to head back to day surgery for his arrival. 

We arrived as they were wheeling him in, popsicle in hand. He had Morris with him, and seemed to be doing all right. We had to wait a couple more hours to make sure that all was good, which of course, it was. He's a little super trooper and came through beautifully. We gave him his present that we showed him first thing in the morning, and promised he could open when his surgery was done. He was sooooooo excited for that. We had purchased a couple DVDs for him (Wall-E and Kung Fu Panda), and immediately began watching one, while we waited. He had to consume some apple juice before they'd take the IV out, and they gave him some codeine to try to make sure he didn't react to that. Once all of that was good, we were free to go. 

Oh, and a small side note here. They gave him an epidural style anaesthetic as well as a general. This was to lessen the pain, but the end result was he wouldn't be able to fully use his legs for about six hours. He totally didn't understand this, and it was kind of amusing, but also a bit scary as we didn't want him hurting himself. But again, trying to hold back a two year old is nearly impossible!! Oh well, he did great, and I'm so proud of him for being the super trooper that I knew he would be!!