Surgery Day....

Today was a BIG day for Dylan. He had to have his Incisional Hernia repaired on the right side of his belly. He got this hernia as a result of when he was in the NICU, transferred to IC on that scary scary night when he was 10 days old, they placed the Penrose Drains in to try and seal over the suspected NEC he had, it WORKED!!!!! But his hernia was a result, it has not been causing him any pain and it would retract, then poke out again but it was not getting any smaller and they said if it had not gotten smaller by the time he was 3 they would repair it. Well with summer coming and preschool this fall now was a good time.

We met with Pediatric Surgery a few weeks ago and the doctor was SO great. He is from South Africa and was telling Dylan all of the terms for things during the visit in his country, such as we call it a flashlight, they call it a 'torch', it was funny and Dylan had lots of giggles with him. We felt so comfortable with the University, why not do it there, plus, they have all of his history since he was in the NICU there for 5 months.

Since Dylan has had quite a bit of a gunky cough still, after his bronchitis a few weeks ago, it was questionable whether a. they would okay the surgery once we got there today and b. if he did have the surgery, if we would be able to go home or not. The Anesthesiologist came in and listened to Dylan before hand, he heard lots of coarse noises in his chest but no wheezing which was good. So it was wait....and see. They had us give him a breathing treatment before they took him in and they gave him a steroid during surgery also to help his airway from inflammation. Daddy was able to take Dylan back to the OR and hold him while they put him to sleep, then they shooed daddy out to the waiting room with mommy. Mommy went to the 'Day of Surgery Lounge' they gave us assigned seats and we waited there until after surgery was done. It was tedious....the surgery could have been from 1-3 hours, that is quite a varying time frame. Thank goodness for books, IPOD Touch and aunt Ellie coming up to check on us.

The doctor came up after just over an hour and told us things went great, he was in recovery. His hernia was the size of the tip of the doc's thumb and things went without a hitch. He was a little hard to wake up, daddy had said that they had to give him some extra 'gas' to put him under because he was fighting it so much. We got to recovery to see him and he was crying for daddy, then he was crying for mommy. We had his blanket to settle him down and that still didn't do the trick, but as soon as mommy gave him her car keys, that did the trick, he was back to sleep for another hour and a half. His sats were getting low, into the upper 80's, so it was said again that we may have to stay. The gave him some oxygen and his sats came up, then after about 30 minutes he was keeping his sats up on his own. We woke him again and he just kept asking to go 'bye bye'. We tried to give him a Popsicle and he didn't want it, he did drink some water so that impressed them since he was able to keep it down, and soon after we got the all clear to take him home. We are doing treatments to keep his lungs clear and he has pain medicine as often as 4 times a day, or Tylenol which ever we think he needs.

He did great on the way home. The nurses had us worried that the anesthesia and car ride combo would make him sick on the way home, to be prepared they gave us a bucket with a lid, but thankfully nothing like that happened. He was immediately asking for 'yummy's and pizza and yummy food.' It was very hard to not let him eat or drink this morning. We had to time it so we had just enough time to get him up, give him a bath, get him dressed and give him a treatment and then out the door before he started asking for his 'yummy yogurt' for breakfast. So on the way home we started with cheerios in the car, he did fine. He had his blanket and books and Elmo and keys so he was content. Since we got home he has been really happy, he started to play with toys then crawled up on the couch and snuggled with mommy and then moved on to daddy. He is nursing his side which is fine...good actually. I had laid his quilt on the floor with a pillow and he tried to lay down but then said 'mommy stuck' when he couldn't get up, he would ask to get up on the couch after he crawled up a few times, I think he is having some discomfort, which is normal. He is walking a little funny and if he bends down he kneels rather than bending over like he normally would. We are totally fine with this because normally he is a crazy man and we would worried that if he was that way, that it would hurt what he just had surgery for. They said though after 3 days he should be back to himself and not feeling much pain. So daddy is home tomorrow and I am home Friday to keep his activity level low, keep him hydrated and watch his incision.

Daddy was able to finish the play yard/swing set for the kids just in time for our return from Arizona. We just have to finish the landscaping around and under it, move it over to its position, and take the rings down and put up the infant seat. We are excited for Dylan and Danielle to have lots of play time out there this summer. Daddy did an EXCELLENT job and we built it so we can expand it and add many more toys/accessories when they get a little bigger, and we can also take it with us when we build a house on our lot in a few years.

Also, last Sunday was the last class of Aqua Tots for Dylan & Daddy. Late this summer they will be starting Aqua kids! This was such a great experience for Dylan & Daddy both and we are all very glad that they did it. Dylan really learned a lot and now has a whole new comfort ability level with water. The 2 male instructors were great and if Dylan was being a stinker, they could just go over, start talking to him and he was back to being a good boy in no time. Funny how that works! It sure was a great session!

These pics are pretty cute. We put Dylan to bed the other night, heard him in his room talking to himself, not crying or banging on the door, he usually will talk himself to sleep so we just let him be. Well silly mommy put the laundry basket in his room but didn't put the clean clothes away.....So after about 1/2 hour I went into check on him and this is what I found, he made a mess of the clean clothes, cleared the pillows and such off his bed and fell asleep on the floor. I was cracking up and had to go get daddy and the camera, he is such a cute little stinker!!

Thank you lord for

protecting our little boy today. Mommy & Daddy were so nervous this morning and praying and trying to be optimistic at the same time. After everything he has been thru we pray lord, that this is the last of any surgery for Dylan. Thank you for protecting him and blessing us with our precious little Dylan.~