Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The big day

I woke up around 5am this morning when Nicholas made a little sound, so I got up and had some breakfast, got cleaned up, etc. I went back to see him around 5:30 and managed to get dressed before he woke up. I changed his diaper and we got in the car and headed to CHEO.

Once we got here, we knew exactly where to go and everyone has been super nice and helpful. It’s a really great hospital. Nicholas got to play in the waiting room and climb over every chair and bench and make pretty eyes to all the other patients and nurses. He flirted constantly. One of the nurses checked him over and we were back in the playroom. Eventually, she came to get us and Nicholas got some pre-medication (slow-down drugs) and some Tylenol and we made some bubbles for a while. His eyes started to close a bit, but he fought with all his might to stay active. At least he was ok in my arms – without the drugs, he would have been running around all the hallways. We hung out for a little while longer and his anesthetists came to see him, check him over and explain things again. His surgeon/urologist also came by to check things out and put his initials near the location of the incision. He found the teste very easily by palpating, so didn’t believe he would need to do a laparoscopy and it should be a simple surgery.

Once everyone saw him and were satisfied and they were ready, they dressed me up and we went to the operating room. We laid him on the stretcher and I sang to him as they held a mask on his face to put him to sleep. He fought it a fair bit, but did quite well. Once he was asleep, I had to leave him, but I think he was in good hands. Once asleep, they put in an intravenous and give him the meds that way.

I then went down to the cafĂ© to get a coffee and came back to the waiting room so they can find me when things are over (it was 8:15 when I was sitting down again). From there, I don’t have any details of how things went. Dr. Guerra, the urologist who performed the surgery came to see me after the surgery (9:30). He said everything went well, no issues. I’ll spare the details.

Shortly after, the nurse came to get me so I could be with Nicholas. She said he was really hungry! He woke up crying, but settled very very quickly after they gave him a bottle of sugar water. I guess if he’s really desperate, he’ll take a bottle!! He also drank a ton of apple juice, so he was much happier after that. He was very groggy from the morphine and other drugs in his system, so he slept on my shoulder on and off for the next couple of hours. We hung out with a nurse coming to check every now and again. Around 11 or so, she felt good that everything was ok, so I got him changed back into his pj’s and left the hospital around 11:30. We stopped by Shoppers to fill the prescription (codeine) and pick up some polysporin and headed back to the Herages. He ate well, had a massive pee and poop (it was everywhere! – probably from all the AJ) and is now sleeping in the pack’n’play. I’ll have a nice shower.

He was full of it (piss and vinegar!) after lunch, so doesn’t seem to be in pain. For now, we’ll stick to just Tylenol, but if he’s looking like he’s in pain, we’ll give him the codeine (or if he’s uncontrollable and jumping on the couches :) ). Hopefully everything heals well and he continues on the road to recovery!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm happy to hear that everything went well. We have been thinking of you! Now we wish you good luck with trying to keep him a little less active over these next couple of weeks!
The Durepos'

Unknown said...

I am so relieved and happy that he is back to being his old self!
Vous ĂȘtes dans nos coeurs:-)
maman et papa

danakean said...

so glad to hear everything went well:) hopefully he has a good day today.

New Mommy said...

Yippee - good news! Hope he was ok last night and is on the mend (vs the war path! :) ) today....

Anonymous said...

Good stuff Jules! Sounds like he was a trouper for the whole thing. I don't envy any man who has to have surgery in that particular area. ;)