Surgery #3

We made it to Chicago on Sunday for surgery #3. I never would have thought that this surgery would be to remove an infection but here we are. As much as I hate surgery, I was relieved of this one. Three months of dressing changes for this mommy is ENOUGH, and I found it heartbreaking every time he would just sit there, put his hands up and watch me take care of the infection like it was routine.

Everything leading up to today's surgery was a little chaotic. Last night, I hadn't heard from the hospital and I thought that was strange so I decided to give them a call. Well, they were never going to call because we were not on the schedule. GULP. I urgently checked my email to make sure I didn't mess up but surgery was definitely supposed to be on the 21st. So I called Dr. Bauer, and he said the same thing, "he isn't on my schedule either, in fact I'm not even in the operating room tomorrow." Oh boy! Of course, Dr. Bauer assured me that this would happen sometime before I left but that he couldnt guarantee which day it would be on. He asked me to fast Aiden at 6am and then at 8:30, call Kristi, and see if the hospital has room for us around noon as he didn't have much going on tomorrow.

It was a little stressful at first but after talking to Dr. Bauer, I wasn't even worried. I knew it would work out. So, I woke Aiden up at 6 am and gave him a bottle and he went right back to sleep. Kristi called me around 8:15, letting me know that we were on the schedule for noon and to be at the hospital at 11. Bless her heart, she felt terrible about the mistake and I told her not to worry, we all make mistakes. Luckily, Aiden hasn't been a huge breakfast eater lately so fasting him was not all that bad. We finished getting ready and headed to the hospital at 10:30.

Of course when we get to hospital, we weren't on the list! I just laughed. I figured that would be the case so they just made a quick phone call upstairs to make sure we were supposed to be there. Aiden wasn't too sure where he was but he didn't seem to care all that much. Instead he was waving and saying hi to everyone. It wasn't until we put his gown on and the nurse came in that he was a little confused. He still didn't cry though which was good since last time he did. He walked around the room with his little cape on and was cracking my mom and I up. Dr. Bauer came in shortly before taking him back to surgery and told us that this should be a simple procedure and that clearing this up will be easier in the future.

This time we decided to give him the versed to make it a little easier when they take him from us. It was hilarious! He was really relaxed and when we said goodbye, he slowly waved and seemed fine! It's odd to say this but I'm so comfortable watching him go through those surgery doors. He is in really good hands and everyone is so sweet and nice. My absoulte favorite recovery nurse, Mary, is so awesome! She came out and gave me a hug and talked to me about what we were doing. So nice that she remembers us as she must see so many people everyday.

Dr. Bauer said surgery would take about an hour so my mom and I headed to grab some lunch in the cafeteria. It ended up being a little over an hour but it did go by fast. He said that everything went well! We headed back to recovery to see Aiden and he was asleep. He woke up a bit and cried but was shortly back to sleep and soon enough we were moved to our private room. He sparked up fast and started drinking some pedialyte. Shortly after that he had some toddler formula and then some food and some more food. This was unusual, as he normally doesn't want to eat so I knew right away this was going to be an easy recovery. We only stayed a few hours and headed back to the hotel.

He is doing great and I'm glad to have this over with. We will see Mim and Susan on Thursday for a dressing change and then in a couple of weeks, remove the stitches. Thanks for all the support I received today! It's always so nice to have so many people carrying about my sweet little boy.