Aiden's surgery

I am very sorry that it is almost 24 hours after Aiden's surgery was complete and I have not posted.  Sorry.

Here is the update.  Aiden's surgery was a success.  No, it was more than a success.  It went so much better than we had hoped.

Aiden woke up very groggy.  He was clingy and foggy and sad.  Bad way to start the day - or so we thought.  We were needed at Primary Children's Medical Center at 10am.  Aunt Kari and Uncle Chris came with us so we would have some company.  We did the pre-registration and changed Mr. Aiden into his hospital "jammies":

(no, I asked.  I couldn't take the jammies home.  Although they are very, very cute.)

We then went into the waiting room and waited.  And waited.  He was the last one on Dr. Cartwright's schedule and they were really behind.  Imagine this... a nine month old baby who has not had any food for nearly 24 hours and nothing to drink since 6am.  He was so nice.  Sad, hold-me, but nice.  He just wanted to lay on my shoulder and be sad. 

(I love that my boy loves his mommy.  And this is a faux-hawk hairdo.)

We went into pre-op. It was a cute room full of toys.  But Aiden would still have none of it.  He just wanted to snuggle.

Cute pre-op room and a snuggling Mister

He fell asleep just before it was time to say goodbye.  The way it works is that the anesthesiologist takes the child (usually a crying child who wants his mommy...) and the mom walks away crying that she could not be there for her little upset baby.  WELL - THIS MOMMY GOT A BREAK!!  The anesthesiologist took Aiden while he was asleep.  The nurse later told me that he didn't even flinch.  When they put him on the operating table, he slightly opened his eyes long enough to see the mask coming with anesthesia.  Beautiful.  

Anesthesiologist leading the way to dooooom!!!!

We waited for about 4 1/2 hours and during that time, we had lunch at the cafeteria (AMAZING poached salmon and mashed potatoes), went to the gift shop (Aunt Kari bought a toy monkey for Aiden), pharmacy (sinus meds for mom... eyedrops for Kari), played cards, read magazines, waited anxiously.

Kari and Chris were so amazing to wait...and wait...and wait...for little man.

Here is a snapshot of what the doc said they did the following during his surgery:

No graft was needed from the skin in his cheeks.  They did the circumcision and they had enough skin for the graft.  They did the plastic surgery reconstruction and it was successful.  They determined that the ureter stent was straight enough into the bladder that they did not need a catheter.  So - we have a boy with no feeding tube, no catheter, just a lot of stitches, pain meds, and a little tube coming out of his little winkie.  

I was able to go back to the post-op room to help him out of the anesthesia.  He was fighting until I came and started singing.  OH!  I love this boy!

Then we went into recovery.  He threw up his pain meds and we ordered more medication and waited.  So the things that really amazed me is that:

#1) the nurse said that they were going to send me home before the next dose of Lortab so if he throws up, he is home.  Shouldn't we wait to be discharging small patient until we are sure they are keeping food down?

#2) same nurse was very confused when I asked her if I could have something for nausea just in case he was throwing up in the night.  Confused?  I am thinking that a vomiting baby post-op is not a good thing.   What do I know?

Poor baby.  The IV and the name tag

We were only in post-op for about an hour.  He was just snuggly and sleeping.  Then, they just sent us home. Ready or not, there we went.

Shiree came in time to hold baby in post-op.  His sugar water was quickly thrown up, but he loved it.

And home we went.  The plan is that we will go see Dr. Cartwright in 10 days to have the stent removed.  We have a pretty simple wound care and medication protocol for the next few weeks.  He slept fairly well until about 4am then the Lortab wore off.  Then we had SCREAMING until the next dose kicked in.  

A very drugged mister on the ride home.  Oh, so sweet.

Today we have had a whole lot of medications, sleeping and snuggling.  He is doing really well, but his little... wound area... is looking SO painful.  We can bathe him after another 2 days or so.  Then we will have the bubble experience of a lifetime.  Oh, yeah....

Can't wait until he feels better.  We need the sunshine.

TMI - be forewarned

In less than 72 hours, we will be home from surgery, God willing.  We are scheduled for Aiden's surgery on Thursday morning.  Many people have asked me what all will be going on, so if you are delicate, please don't read on...

Aiden has a condition called Scrotal Hypospadias.   It is where the opening where the urine would pass is not located on the tip of the penis like usual.  It is down where the penile shaft meets the scrotum.  It is considered to be a severe case of hypospadius.  He also has "abnormal genitalia" where the scrotal sack is actually attached to the penis on one side and the testicular area is two distinct sacs instead of one.

So, the surgery that Aiden is going to have is anticipated to be between 5 and 6 hours and he will have 4 (maybe 5 or 6) procedures done.  First, they will release the penis from the scrotal sack.  At that point, they will do a circumcision and use as much of that skin as possible to wrap around the shaft where there is no skin from the release (that is #2 procedure).  At that point, if there is not enough skin from the circumcision (which they don't think there will be), Aiden will have a skin graft taken from the cheeks inside his mouth (#3).  They will then repair the penile shaft and then move the scrotal sac where it needs to be and plastic surgery it enough to make it as normal as possible (#4).  Finally, they will take a catheter and urethra stent and punch a hole in the top of the penis and run the line into his bladder to repair that (#5) so he can urinate properly.  If they have had to take skin from his mouth, they will place an NG tube (feeding tube) through his nose so we don't delay the healing of the cheeks.  (#6).  WHEW!  While they are messing around in that area, his original surgeon from his previous surgeries wants to open the testicular sac to check on the testicle that was damaged during the hernia episode (see the very first post on this blog...).

The recovery will be something like this:  Optimally, this will all be done in one surgery and out-patient (Yikes...).  He will come home with a catheter and possibly an NG tube.  He will have between 180 and 360 stitches and be swollen horribly.  He will have the catheter for between 1 week to 6 weeks for that to heal.  (Think about getting ears pierced... you have to leave the earrings in place for the hole to heal so it stays open... Same concept.)  The urologist who is the US expert on this will be doing the surgery.  He warned me that the genital area will not look normal for about 5 years.  After this repair, Aiden will be fully functional like any other male.

He will be on Tylenol and morphine for as long as he needs it.  Poor bug.  He won't even be able to enjoy his favorite bubble bath for 8 weeks.

So, I guess I would just ask that all of you will pray for Mister and have him in your thoughts come Thursday morning.  Love you all and thanks for your love.

Easter Egg Hunt

With Easter last week and Conference the same weekend, our big extended family had the Easter Egg hunt this week.  Teresa did, as always, an amazing job organizing fun things for everyone.  We hunted for eggs, then decorated Easter Eggs outside.  It was actually warm for being so overcast and Aiden had a great time.

I love that Aiden has so many wonderful men in his life:  His uncles, his cousins... they are all great.  Cousin Mike hid the eggs.  Uncle Dave and his cousins helped him find eggs.  Uncle Chris cuddled him while he was "squirley".  Thanks, guys, for being a great example to my boy.

Cousin Mikey is one of his favorites.  And mine, too!

Cousin Breanna, Aido, and Uncle Scott

Look what I found, MOM!!!

Fun at Aunt Teresa and Uncle Scott's house!

I loved it!

Bubbles

It was a beautiful day and I was so sad that Mister is still a little sicky.  He is not throwing up, but he is just ornery.  This is the cry he does all day when he doesn't feel well:  Ehheh ehheh ehheh.... over and over again.  Good thing he is cute or else....

Actually he was doing well enough this afternoon that we went to the park to blow bubbles.  I bought this Bubble Gun for $1.50 at the grocery store and inserted a battery.  Heavenly choirs singing above.  It is the coolest invention EVER!!!

I love this boy.  I love this boy so much.

Sick Baby, Sick Car

My baby is sick.  Breanna and I were at the mall buying new shoes for her (when did the canvas shoes get stylish again?  They are cute and Breanna looks cute in them).  Breanna paid for her shoes while I ran from the store with a gagging baby.  He was gracious enough to wait to actually upchuck until we were clear of the carpet and in the hallway.  Then came the barrage of pureed mangoes, digested soy formula, and rice down my shirt, in his blanket, down his shirt, and in my purse.  Luckily, none of the vomit made it into the garbage can for which we were aiming.

Breanna grabbed an extra bag from the cashier for the defiled blanket and took off to JCPenney to find another outfit to buy for Aiden.  I did my best to keep the vomit contained until she came back.  She took him and I headed for Lane Bryant to buy a new shirt for me which the cashier there was nice enough to let me change into before I left the store.

Then, we went to retrieve my sick car from the fix-it shop.  A serpentine belt, another adjuster thingy, and $200 later, I drove out of the shop only to have it smell like burning oil.  We will see if Uncle Chris spraying the engine down will fix the smell.

Another projectile vomiting of soy formula and a fever later, Mister is officially sick.  GREAT!  But I love to snuggle him, so the upcoming weekend will be very fulfilling for me.

Breanna and Shiree joined us for dinner and started the weekend off with watching my all-time favorite comedy-  Oscar.  If you have not seen it, I strongly encourage it.

Who could have thought that $200 of car repairs and vomiting baby could mean an overall good day.

The Challenge

COOLEST website time waster ever!!!!!

I love it and it makes the most beautiful pictures ever.  I was challenged by a friend to make a couple of pictures that represent my life.  I really never had thought about art representing my life and I found that it was much harder than I thought.  I am not an artist, but this was fun and thought-provoking.

http://www.escapemotions.com/experiments/flame/index.html#top

1.  Create an abstract to represent your family. 

The red represents me.  The blue is Aiden.  The green is Roman (the dog).

We are all individuals with a common family.  The family part is the lightest and I figure we are the happiest when we are together and functioning as a family.  So... that is so Confusious of me.

2.  Create a piece of art that represents your feeling on life, love and the future. This is a little less philosophical.  Green is optimism.  Blue is spirituality.  Red is love and passion.  The leftover white is the future.  I think there is so much left to experience.

That's all I have in me.  No more insights into my soul.  

Just a super cool website that allows you to have a fun time.

...a few ramblings...

I have had many experiences over the last 48 hours that have had me thinking of the many different facets in life that the whole experience.  I am grateful for all of them, even when - or maybe especially because - they are hard.  Someone in my family told me once that her greatest trial in life is having to watch the people she loves go through trials and feel so helpless.  Once, I thought "great.  Try going through one or two doozies.  Then get back with me."  But then I realized that she has been through as much as I have and that, yes, it is harder to watch helplessly than to have to go through the trials.  At least when you are going through it, you can take step after step even if it puts you in a wrong direction.  You can choose where you go and how you react - you have some control over the situation.

I have been grateful for the people who have been placed in my life that influence - for better or worse.
I have friends who will not let me disappear.  They keep hold of me and make sure I know they love me.
I hope that I have found ways in my life to do the same for friends I need to keep in my life.
I have the one or two people in my life that can tell me like it is.  Hurtful or not.  And I hope that the people in my life that I can do that for are not offended.

I am excited for what the future holds for my little family and have a hard time just taking a jump into the unknown, but I know that as long as we are trying, we are not failing.