Gabe's Surgery

I'm taking a quick break from the Family Planning series to give you an update on Gabe's surgery today. We took him in for an inguinal hernia repair and a circumcision revision. He was scheduled at 8:30am, so we had to arrive at 7:00. Cali (one of the high school girls I get to hang out with often) arrived at our door at 6:10am--even earlier than I asked her to be here--and she looked GREAT! How does this happen, anyway? I hadn't slept nearly enough, and in contrast to Cali, I did not have it all together.

This started a series of opportunities for Chet to laugh at me. For example,

• I forgot Gabe's shoes and had to turn around and get them.
• On the way to the hospital, I made a series of wrong turns (but thankfully ended up in the right place).
• When we arrived in the parking garage, I failed to put our vehicle in park and almost ran into the wall. So I put it in park and started to get Gabe out of the van... without turning it off or taking the keys out!
• We arrived in the pre-op waiting room, and I was asked for my cell phone number. I promptly provided it in the following order: first three digits, area code, and last four digits. The woman asked, "So, is that local?" Nice. I got that corrected.
• We waited a few minutes and got Gabe back into his little pre-op room and started getting him ready. It was at this point that I realized I had forgotten my cell phone outside... the same cell phone connected to the number I gave the waiting room attendant to use in case they needed to reach us while we were in the hospital. Whatever.

All I can say is that this is why I do not wake up before 9:00am except for Sundays when I wake up at 7:45 to go to church. I do not EVER wake up at 6 am, and it is for the good of everyone else around me.

Back to Gabe... We met all the people that would be helping him throughout the process. He screamed at every single one of them. Thankfully, he's cute even when he's crying, and they're used to it, so it was actually a source of amusement for everyone in the room (which probably wasn't all that amusing for Gabe himself). He was able to go to the play room to hang out for a few minutes. His surgeon came to talk to us and marked the site where he'd operate. We got him dressed in the tiny little gown they had set out for us. Then I gave Gabe his "happy juice". Basically, he just became friendlier to people but didn't act crazy or anything. I was prepared for something much more dramatic. When Ladan had surgery at the age of 28 months, he acted totally drunk as a result of the happy juice. Additionally, there was a preschool-aged boy across the way from us this morning, and his happy juice caused him to make a bunch of pig noises and then laugh hysterically. I was ready for worse, but it is a bit unnerving to see your toddler acting drunk. I was thankful I didn't have to watch Gabe act that way. After he was good and glassy-eyed, they took him down the hall. He cried for 3 seconds or less and was in good shape.

The surgery took about 45 minutes. The surgeon came out and told us how it all went. Apparently, the circumcision revision was a little bit worse than normal in that Gabe's skin was fused all around his private part, so they had to do a little bit more work to get it off, which caused more bleeding than normal. He was unable to find a hernia when he went in. He said this happens to him about 2-3 times per year (because it's very difficult to diagnose a hernia until you actually get in there) and described what he did find. There was a fat pocket in there that was possibly causing the appearance of swelling. So he removed that. He also drew a nice diagram of Gabe's inner anatomy on his scrub pants to help show us that it's possible that Gabe's floor (similar to a female pelvic floor, but I'm not sure if it's called a pelvic floor or just a floor in boys) was weak even if there was no hole in it. This weakness could have made it feel like there were organs popping through even if they weren't actually coming through the layer of tissue. So he pulled a bit of muscle down and stitched it across the floor. This will serve to make the normal hole where hernias develop smaller and will also strengthen his floor so that hopefully we won't see a hernia pop up in the future.

We waited about 40 more minutes while Gabe was in the recovery room, and then we were able to meet him in the post-op room. He was SO CUTE when he rounded the corner in that tiny little stretcher and soft green toddler-sized gown with his little blonde curls poking out from behind his ears! I was able to pick him up right away, and he was asleep on my shoulder again within 7 or 8 minutes. As long as no one tried to take him from me, the only fussing he seemed to do when he was waking up was when they checked his vital signs. It was lots easier than when Ladan woke up from his surgery. Ladan insisted on trying to walk even though he couldn't support his weight at all on his legs, and he did a lot more screaming than Gabe. I guess that extra 10 months of age made a difference.

We waited with him in the post-op room about an hour. The nurse showed us his incision sites. The hernia incision was closed up with internal stitches and has a clear plastic protective coating over the top. It looks a little bit yucky, but that clear plastic layer makes all the difference. His circumcision site, on the other hand, looks DISGUSTING! He has a tiny ring of little black stitches all around, it's swollen, and it's bloody. I had to walk to get a glass of water after that, because I was pretty sure I was going to pass out or throw up. I can handle pain, but stitches are another story. More on that in a minute.

His surgeon came to see him one more time and verified that everything looked good. Chet was reading some of his ethics materials, and the doctor asked him what he was studying. When he said he was reading about euthanasia, we branced into a discussion about how science has outpaced ethics and how it's crazy to think about the implications of so many things that are being done right now or that are coming up in the near future. Can I just say that this is one more reason that I think we have an awesome surgeon?!?

On the way home, I made at least two wrong turns... just so I didn't let Chet down, of course. :)We arrived at home at about 11:30. Ladan had just woken up at 11:15, so Cali was bummed that she didn't get to hang out with him longer. Another day.

I went to get Gabe's prescription filled while Chet fed him and put him down for a nap. He slept for a few hours. Chet went to bed as well since he hadn't gotten much sleep between work and the surgery. When Gabe woke up, his diaper was totally full, and his clothing and sheets were soaked... and Chet was still planning to sleep for another hour! Great! That means I have to do the diaper change. I sucked it up and forced my way through it. All the while, I made sure I spent as little time looking at the stitches as possible. However, you kind of have to watch what you're doing when you're applying ointment to the wound. Let's just say I worked as quickly as possible without hurting him and had to IMMEDIATELY sit down before I passed out. (I've done that enough times that I know what it feels like when it's coming). Whew! Narrow miss! Chet was gracious and did the rest of the diaper changes until he had to go to work. I've had one since then during which I made sure the lights were dim, and it was lots better. Maybe I'll be a pro at stitches by the time this is all over! I'm just praying that handling stitches is NOT one of the things that the Lord is preparing me for more of in the future!

Gabe got better and better throughout the rest of the evening. He sat in my lap for a while. Then we went for a stroller ride outside just so he could be still for a while longer. By the end of the night he was laughing, running a bit, and I had to try to keep him from dancing around too much. Can you even imagine bouncing back like that?

It seems like all our experiences with surgery have proven that day 3 is the worst, so we'll see how it goes on Sunday. We're off to a good start though.

When Ladan was saying his prayers before bed tonight, he said, "Thank you, God, for Gabe not burning up!" Amen to that! He said this because, when Gabe woke up from his nap, I said he was "burning up". Ladan and I had to take him outside and walk him around in the breeze in order to cool him off until his medicine kicked in again. Ladan was just thankful that Gabe wasn't on fire, I guess. He was so great all day with Gabe. He brought him toys and tried to help him. There was only one occasion where he forgot that he couldn't roll around on the floor with Gabe. Gabe is certainly blessed to have a big brother who loves him so much! And we are blessed to have two amazing kids!

In the end, the possibility of the hernia is what helped us to go ahead with the circumcision revision, and I'm so thankful that we decided to go for it. I think that if we hadn't done the circumcision revision now, it would have caused him lots of problems later. Better to do the operation when he won't remember it. So his circumcision is fixed, and hopefully he won't develop a hernia anyway! There is One who knows better than I do!