Second (and hopefully last) Surgery

Back to the hospital we go. Ugh! Only 9 days after Wyatt's first surgery we find ourselves back again. And this time at a very ungodly hour of 6am! We couldn't find anyone to watch Bella at 5:00 in the morning (imagine that...lol) so she came with us this time. Not a big deal, they have more toys than Bella could dream of and this time we shouldn't be there so long. The plan is that Wyatt will be put under general anesthesia again, Dr. S. will remove the casts, manipulate Wyatt's feet into a better position, and then re-cast. This will be the easiest cast change they have ever done on Wyatt...no kicking and screaming.

Why are we here again?

Wyatt was definitely not happy to find himself back in the hospital again. He was very hungry and had no interest in the toys or any distractions. Thankfully everything was running on time this week and we got put through the paces quickly. It was no easier watching Wyatt walk off with the nurses this week than it was last week. At least Bella broke my sad mood by yelling 'Bye Wyatt'.

About 45 minutes in I am called to the front desk for a phone call. They just assumed it was the Dr. wanting to know what cast color we chose. I go up front and Dr. S is explaining to me that the heel cord on Wyatt's left foot is extremely tight and needs to be released. We knew this was a possibility, but we just weren't expecting it to happen today. Since Wyatt was already under I told him to go ahead with the procedure.

Everything went smoothly and soon we were back to see Wyatt in recovery. I could hear him screaming before we were even close. That boy was awake and pissed. As we were walking into his room the nurse had just finished giving him something to calm him down. Apparently coming out of anesthesia fir the second time in less than 10 days didn't agree with Wyatt. I cuddled him in all of his cords and he was soon back asleep. He just wanted his Mommy :) We have new casts on for the next two weeks and then we will be back at the office again to switch them out for hopefully his last pair. Fingers crossed! The end is in sight!

Big sister had fun playing doctor.

Little miss Isabella made out like a bandit at the hospital. Every time we turned around someone was giving her free stuff. Stickers, notepads, candy, and a book. What a spoiled princess! We also decided that it was time to trim Wyatt's hair again because he was called a 'pretty girl' 3 different times!

Post-Surgery

It wasn't long before Wyatt was smiling again :)

I could tell the moment Wyatt's caudal wore off. He started crying and nothing would come even close to comforting him. Thankfully we had a prescription strength pain reliever. We gave him a dose and 20 minutes later he was out. Wyatt slept practically the next 24 hours. When he awoke he was back to his mischievous self. You never would have thought he had foot surgery 2 days ago. He was dying to get down and crawl, but we were told to keep him as still as possible. It was rough. You try telling a 9 month old he can only sit and not crawl! It got to the point that not being mobile was bothering him more than the surgery. We we also exhausted from trying to wrangle him. Finally we decided to call Dr. S and beg him to let Wyatt crawl. Dr. S agreed that a happy baby will heal better so he can crawl, just no attempts to pull up onto his feet. Yay! I don't know who was happier, us or Wyatt? Things went back to normal pretty quickly. Wyatt is accustomed to the leg casts so he went back to his normal cast-crawl quickly. He is a little annoyed about not being able to stand anymore though.

In 9 days Wyatt goes back to the hospital to change out his casts. Since his feet will still be tender from the surgery they will do it with him under general anesthesia again. I am dreading the whole no-eating routine again and this time we have to be at the hospital at a lovely 6am. Ugh...

Surgery

This ducky is awesome!

I have been looking forward to/dreading this day for months. We will be one step closer to making it possible for Wyatt to walk normally, but how am I going to be able to hand my baby over to the doctors? Wyatt was set to be at the hospital at 8:30 am. He will be going under general anesthesia as well as having a caudal for pain so he is not allowed to have any food after midnight but can have breast milk until 5 am. That is a relief because baby boy likes to nurse! We arrived at the hospital right on time and got checked in. The nice guy in registrar gave Wyatt a small rubber ducky to play with. It was wearing a raincoat which was so appropriate as it was pouring that morning. Wyatt gnawed on that for quite a while! We were quickly down to the surgery waiting area. I was starting to get nervous. Wyatt was crawling around so happily and loves staring at the fish tank. He was of course a hit with everyone else in the room. Wyatt's huge smile and the fact that he loves to screech at the top of his lungs when he is excited is definitely a head turner.

We soon went back to the children's part of surgery. It was such an inviting place. Everyone was extremely friendly and they had every toy a child could possibly want to play with. My 2 year old would be in heaven! We found out that Wyatt's surgery had been pushed back to 11:45. Ugh...such a long wait with a hungry baby. He was so good though and hardly put up a fuss. I had to keep hiding from him because as soon as he saw me he would want to nurse. That was very hard! He did look really cute in his hospital gown. Darren said it looked like a dress, but at least is had astronaut koalas on it.

Toys!

Time passed amazingly quickly. Soon we were speaking to the anesthesiologist about what to expect. Wyatt would be given gas to be put to sleep at first. It was a cute mask with Sesame Street characters on it and smelled like strawberries. They gave one to Wyatt to play with so it would be familiar. After he was asleep they would put in the IV and give him a caudal. The caudal is similar to the epidural I got during labor. On children it is placed by the tailbone and fills up there. There are no nerves or veins in that area and it is extremely safe. That meant that when Wyatt woke up he would have to pain and no idea what had just happened. The caudal should block pain for 10-18 hours.

Wyatt rockin' his hospital gown.

Shortly after we were talking with Dr. S. I am so happy he is our surgeon. He is very affection with Wyatt and I have complete trust in him. He explained the surgery again. Basically there will be a small incision in his feet and a pin will be placed holding his bones in the proper location. The pins will be sticking out of his foot, but because of the casts we won't have to see it. Thank goodness!

At 12:20 the nurse came for Wyatt. Wyatt went to her with only one little squeak and then they walked away. It was by far the hardest thing I have ever had to do in my life. I still tear up just thinking about them walking through the surgery doors.

Darren and I went to lunch while we waited. I think that was the longest two hours ever. Dr. S came out and said everything went well. His bones aligned perfectly and there was no need to cut his achilles tendons at that point. We might have to cut the tendon on the left foot at a later date, but we will see if it will correct itself. He showed us the x-rays which were cool and disturbing at the same time. We thanked him for doing such a good job and waited until we could go back to see our son.

Wyatt's right foot with pin.

And his left.

Snuggles right after surgery. So sweet.

When we were told we could go back it was all I could do to not run. I wanted him in my arms again! The first time I say him in the crib I couldn't help but cry. There he was sound asleep with half a dozen wires and tubes hooked up. He looked so helpless. He started to wake up and was very crabby and confused. The nurse said that was normal and asked if I wanted to hold him. Duh, that was a stupid question! It was a little difficult to figure out how to hold him with all the wires, but we managed. He slept for another 45 minutes before he woke up and was ready to eat. After a quick snack he seemed more alert and we were given the okay to unhook him from all the monitors. We dressed him and got ready to go home. Wyatt was still confused but not in any pain because of the caudal. He was annoyed to find the casts back on and kept trying to push them off. Sorry buddy, but they are there for one month. I will write more about his recovery and future plans later, baby boy is hungry :)

Cast Free

Right after the casts came off!

Well as of two weeks ago ;) But I have two very demanding kiddos that don't leave me much time for the computer. We were so excited for our appointment because today was the day the casts were coming off. We would be doing x-rays and setting a surgery date. The office was running really late that day and we didn't see Dr. S until 45 minutes after our appointment time. I didn't let that dampen my spirits because today was going to be wonderful! He sits down and says we are going to take these off and cast for another 1-2 weeks. What? Come again!? No, no, no...you said we would be doing x-rays today. I was panicking. Not only have the casts been hard on Wyatt, but hard on me to because he would only sleep 1-2 hour at a time at night and most of the time I was rocking him in the recliner. We both have had it and are very exhausted. I pushed him to do the x-rays today. They came back amazing! Way better than the doctor could have hoped. He said after seeing these that Wyatt is okay to proceed on with the surgery. I asked him if Wyatt would benefit from more casting because if it is best for him I would do it, but he said no. I gave myself a little psychological pat on the back for good mommy intuition. We went home with a bare-legged baby :)

Wyatt's feet and legs were so sensitive that he hated us toughing him. His skin was cracked at all the creases and there were lines etched from the socks they put under the casts (2 weeks later and they are still there). Soon he got comfortable with touch again and couldn't be a happier baby boy. He started sleeping (me too!) better and took off crawling. He wanted nothing to do with his feet still. Just trying to tickle them would make him cringe. Too many bad memories associated with his feet already :(

Look at those cute bare baby legs.

A couple days before his scheduled surgery he finally got brake enough to try and stand again. He was so happy he did! He even started trying to cruise along the furniture. It was nice to see my smiley baby back.