B's Surgery

At B's last check-up, the pediatrician noticed that he had a possible hernia just above his belly button.  She sent us to the surgeon to see if it was cause for concern. The surgeon said he was born with it.  While it's small and doesn't bother him, they like to correct them before it can cause problems. So the surgeon said we could do it after our St. Louis trip sometime this summer when B could lay low for a few weeks.

In the meantime, we have all been pretty sick this spring with multiple colds sweeping through our house. B, unfortunately, has had it unusually bad because he has also had ear infections continuously for the last 4 months! Our pediatrician of 5 years left San Diego for Boston in February, so I have been searching for a new one ever since.  I kept taking B to this new pediatrician with what I thought was an ear infection, only to be told that his ears were clear.  And then, a week later, taking him back in because it was so bad to find that his ears were fully infected.  This is a new pediatrician and I don't have an established relationship with her, but I know when my child has an ear infection after dealing with K's chronic ear infections and subsequent tubes when she was a baby.  On the third round of multiple trips to the pediatrician's office, the pediatrician told me that he was just tired and needed to go to bed at 5:30!  I was so frustrated that I knew it was time to see the ENT.  However, our pediatric ENT, who did K's tubes and B's frenectomy, closed his practice in December!

So, I called the only pediatric ENT practice in town at Rady's, and found out that I needed a referral, so I got one.  The usual wait time is about 2 months for an appointment, but they had cancellation in 3 days with a doctor whose first name was Shelby...it was meant to be!

We found out that B has fluid collecting in his middle ear that can't be seen with the pediatrician's light; only with the ENT's microscope. The ENT gave us the option to try one more antibiotic, or go straight to tubes.  We tried the antibiotic...but after a month, he still had fluid in there, so we schedule the tubes for the same time as the hernia, so that he only had to go under general anesthetic once.

When the day arrived, B could not have anything to eat 6 hours before, and nothing to drink 3 hours before.  Luckily, or unluckily, he woke up at 4:45 am, so I fed him some pancakes and eggs.  We watched a little Paw Patrol, played, took a bath, and got dressed.  It was still only 7 a.m.  We went to the grocery store to get him some Gatorade to drink, and then to the park to play (he will not be able to play at the park or ride his bike or scooter for 2 whole weeks!).  He had a blast!

B went down the slide...

And rode his bike...

By 8:15, he wanted to go home, so we drove home and grabbed Patrick to head to the hospital.

He rode with Daddy into the hospital...just like K did when she got tubes!

Flashback to K...

So we got to the hospital and started the waiting game.  Despite the fact that B hadn't had anything to eat since 5, and nothing to drink since 8, he was such a good sport!

He really wanted to wear his shoes...

And then he decided his gown should go up over his head!  He was running out into the hall with his gown over his head running into things!  We were laughing so hard...see video below!

He washed his matchbox cars and his woody with wipes.  They were fresh and clean for surgery!

Then we found a bike in the hall to ride (Rady's has bikes and wagons, and gives out toys and books to the kids waiting to go in for surgery!)

He wanted Daddy to ride with him.

After almost 3 hours at the hospital (the surgeon was running 71 minutes behind!), it was finally time for him to go in.  I put on a white suit and was able to go back with him into the OR.  I held him tight and gave him lots of kisses.  I laid him down on the gurney and held him close while they put the mask on.  At first he just stared at me, but then he started to smile (from the laughing gas).  He started reaching for my face and calling, "Mama," but in a soft and happy voice.  And then his eyes fluttered and he went to sleep.  I knew he was going to be fine, but there were still tears streaming down my face as I smiled at him.  And then I had to make the long walk back to wait with Patrick and I couldn't stop crying for a few minutes.

The ENT (Shelby!) came out after 15 minutes and said everything went well with her part.  B still had fluid in his ears, so she was so glad he got the tubes.  But she asked if he had stuck anything in his ear recently?!  She had seen him two weeks ago and his ear canals were perfectly clear, but today, his right ear was full of debris (what?!).  All kinds of chunky stuff came out of ear like maybe a bug, or something from the pool!  Yuck!  But she cleaned it all out and he was good to go now!  I wondered why he was playing with that ear the last few days and telling me there was water in it!

About 20 minutes after that, the surgeon came out and told us that the hernia was even tinier than he thought.  There was a little piece of fat sticking out of it, and the incision was less than a centimeter.  He has to wait until Friday for a bath, and no strenuous activity for 2 weeks (no bike, no scooter, no park, no beach, no ocean, no pool, no climbing...what are we going to do?!).

When he woke up from the anesthesia, I guess they kept trying to give him juice, but he kept saying, "No! Mama!"  So, they came and got me and was able to pick him up and hold him.  He ripped off his pulse monitor from his finger and then tried to go for his IV.  But then fell back asleep and was snoring immediately!  Then they were able to move us to the next recovery area so that Patrick could come in, too.  He wanted to be held by Daddy, and went back to sleep right away.  He slept on Patrick's shoulder for over an hour....so sweet!  As if he were an infant again.

They wanted him to drink some juice and needed him to be more awake before they would let us check out.  So after a while, they took out his IV so that we could get him dressed to try to wake him up a bit.  And then they finally checked us out around 3:00 p.m., but he was so sleepy, he would just go back to sleep on my shoulder as I carried him out to the car.

We stopped for some food (Patrick and I hadn't eaten all day and were starving!), and B fell asleep in his car seat with 3 french fries in his hand!  We came home, and he laid down in our bed and watched a little bit of TV for a while.

Meanwhile, K was living it up at Mimi and Grandpa Bill's!  She had spent the night at their house and they took her to French camp.  Then, Mimi picked her up from camp and they did all kinds of fun things like play games and paint her nails.  She went with them to their yacht club and watched the Wednesday night boat races.  Here she is with Grandpa Bill!  And she wanted to stay another night because she said B would be too sleepy to play (wink!).  I think it was because she was having a little bit of fun!

When B perked up a little, we took him to Target to pick out a treat for his surgery.  Typically, we would have taken him to the hospital gift shop, but he was much too sleepy!  So we had to wait until he woke up a little.  Of course, he picked out more Paw Patrol friends for him and for his "Deet Deet" (K), and some Paw Patrol DVDs....Yay!!! Paw Patrol without silly commercials!  Here he is on the ride home.

B had a hard time going to sleep tonight even though he's very tired.  It was a really long day and he was such a trooper!  We are so happy that everything went well, and hopefully his tubes will make him an even happier boy!  We love you, B!