Par's Procedure

As you may have figured out--there is always a comical twist with FoR.

We arrived at the hospital bright and early ready for Par's little procedure. We were admitted back almost immediately and prepped for surgery. Par had a little trouble settling down--as you can imagine. As I held Par the anesthesiologist started to take down information from me and Rusty about Par. As he was asking questions, Dr. Kays' nurse practitioner Terri walked up behind him. This is what happened:

Anest : Do you know why you are having the procedure?

Me: Uh, yes.



Anest: Why are you having the esophageal something something?
Me: Huh? (accompanied with dumb look)

Anest: Why do you feel it necessary to have this procedure? (in a softer yet more condescending tone)
Me: Uh... (even dumber confused look)

(Nurse practitioner loudly begins to crack up and whispers something to him)

Me: I don't know what you are talking about, we are having the circumcision because we want him circumcised.

Clearly MORTIFIED, the anesthesiologist makes some lame excuse of why he HAS NO IDEA WHAT PROCEDURE PAR IS HAVING and then continues on with the questions--all of which we answered the day before. He wasn't very much fun after that happened.

Thankfully, we weren't worried--we know Dr. Kays had it under control--but with all the joking about the procedure--it just wasn't the best time to get it wrong!

Because Par was still upset as they were needing to take him back they gave him a dose of Versed up the nose. Within a few minutes, he was WASTED and acting so funny. He had this funny smile and he was waving to everyone--just very slowly. It was easier to see them wheel him away in that state and so Rusty and I headed to the waiting room easier than I thought. We waited about an hour and then we had a phone call. It was Dr. Kays--apologizing that it took longer--but he had to redo it. (Huh!?! I immediately imagined redoing my Barbie's haircuts as the hair got shorter and shorter each time I tried to even it up). What Dr. Kays meant was he wasn't happy how the ring looked (used instead of stitches) and decided to use stitches instead. Thank goodness. He said we could come up in 5 minutes...so we waited and headed up to see our son.
We arrived to a sleeping baby with a plastic thing in his mouth which was used so they could put a tube in his mouth to help him breathe. This was necessary because of the general anesthesia---babies send to have a harder time breathing. We had our first peak at the site--not as bad as I imagined--and we just watched him sleep. Dr. Kays came by and we were able to finally get a picture--even though Par was sleeping and we gave Dr. Kays our gift--a book about Par's journey with CDH--basically, Par's blog put in book form. He seemed touched--we were glad we could touch him in that way--Dr. Kays will never understand what he has given us and how thankful we are of him--so hopefully this book gave him a glimpse of our gratitude.
It took Par about 1.5 hours to wake up--and he did with that same funny smile and drunk look. He was so flopsy that Rusty and I accidentally allowed him to fall to the side--all while beaming this silly smile and waving to nurses in the room. It was comical. We managed to dress him in his comfy outfit which does have a little monkey face on the hood--so it sort of looks like a costume, but it isn't and Par loves it.
As we headed to discharge we ran into Dr. Kays one last time and got another picture! We left the hospital and Par was asleep in just a few minutes. Our ride home was easy--Par only had one little painful episode, but slept most of the way.
So far, I've been able to stay on top of the pain and he is doing great. I know he looks forward to his bath this Saturday (one of his favorite things!)
Thank you for your prayers!