Mason's Surgery

We are happy to report Mason's surgery went well and he is doing great!

Mason was calm and happy throughout our 5-hours at the hospital. We got there around 8:30 AM as directed and he was discharged a little after 1 PM. The surgery itself took only 45 minutes. We drew, played, and watched videos on the iPhone as we waited, joked and answered questions from the various nurses and doctors before the surgery. He was not scared, and neither were Bill and I. I think the kids pick up on their parents' energy and we stayed calm and happy throughout. Here is Mason is his gown.

When asked who he wanted to go in to the OR with him, he said "Mommy" to my surprise. I know he loves me, but he has been very close to Iron-Man Daddy recently. He reconfirmed his choice for me right before we got ready for the OR, and I was still it, so I got ready.

He was still smiling and laughing as he started to breathe the anesthetic gas, as I held his hand. It was not emotional for me, as I knew he was in fine, not scared and in good hands. My job was easy! Once he fell asleep, I left the OR around 10 AM and went with Bill to the cafe to wait. The nurse came out right around 10:45 AM to tell us the surgery went great. Dr. Furness came out about 10 minutes later to describe what he did. In another 45 minutes we were reunited with him as he awoke from the anesthesia. He slept for another hour before we woke him up to eat some Popsicles.

As we waited for Mason to wake up, the nurse went through post surgical procedures and meds with us. She said he may feel like sleeping for the rest of the day and the following day, may not be interested in food and may be hesitant to go pee. Wrong, wrong and wrong again! Although our nurse was great, she didn't know our child.

1) He wanted to go pee just as we got discharged on the way to the parking lot, so we found a bathroom and he did go pee. He even commented "wow, my pee is super slow!" + he went pee normally for the rest of the day;

2) He ate both Popsicles at the hospital and a whole kid's chicken meal from Good Times as we got home + 2 bottles of chocolate milk in the afternoon + a full dinner - the appetite was not affected at all; and

3) He ran and jumped on to the couch as we got home, before we could say "slow down". He stayed awake the whole rest of the day, wanting to play, run and jump. Sitting on the couch watching TV and doing puzzles (I had purchased 2 new puzzle books) only worked for the first 2-3 hours. Bill and I took turns taking naps, but Mason wasn't tired at all!

We are grateful that the surgery day went extremely well. Bill is taking Thursday off to stay with Mason, and they are planning to go see Toy Story 3. I will take Friday off and had originally planned to veg at home, but I think Mason will have too much energy, so I will need to plan an outing.