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 :)