Joey's Surgery

Well, I've known it was coming. For almost six months I've known Joey would have to have this surgery to finish/fix his circumcision. But that doesn't mean I was looking forward to it!

After Luke's experience, I thought I had become totally callused to having a children go under general anesthesia. Turns out, I was just callused to LUKE going under general anesthesia! Joey was a whole different ball game. I was so anxious for a week or so ahead of time. Every time I thought about it, I would nearly panic. I was so worried something would go wrong. And honestly I just couldn't imagine anyone doing anything that would take my Poseph's smile away!! But, we needed to finish what we started. The day before the surgery, I had a thought come to me. I'm kind of embarrassed it didn't occur to me earlier. But I had the thought that during Joey's surgery, of all times, Luke would be there to take care of his baby brother. This was Luke's territory, after all! Once I realized that, I felt total peace.

Luke's surgery was scheduled for 11:00 am, so we were due at same-day surgery by 9:30 am. I was sure to dress Joey in his dino-feet jammies, in honor of Lukey. It's funny how quickly you can fall into old patterns. Once we walked through the hospital doors with Joey, it was like wearing a well-worn glove. I had been nervous that waiting in that same waiting room that we learned of Luke's cancer, with a baby the same age...in the same month!...would be too much for me. But we exited the elevators on the second floor and stepped out onto a totally renovated and redesigned floor! That was nice. :) We got Joey registered and then did was we are most familiar while at the hospital. We waited. :)

Eventually we were moved to our personal waiting room, where the nurse came in and promptly fell in love with Joey. Just like everyone did with Luke! And it turns out, Joey looks every bit as adorable in a hospital gown! (Though truth be told, if I never see another one of my children in a hospital gown I'll be a happy Mama.) We played with our happy boy until it was time to head to the OR. 

This was the part I was most nervous for. I remember all too well how hard it was to hand Luke over to the anesthesiologist and watch a stranger take my crying baby away. I honestly didn't know if I could do it again! But Joey was awesome, and it made it so much easier to watch him go. He didn't cry or whimper or even give me those big brown "What's going on, Mom" eyes. He's the best baby ever!

With Joey back, we had about an hour to wait. Danny and I went to grab our favorite sandwiches at the cafe and made ourselves comfortable in the waiting room. We wished we had time to go the ICS and visit our friends, but we were worried we'd miss Joey's call. We did run into our social worker, Jo, and some of our bone marrow team. That was nice! 

It was almost exactly an hour when the urologist that performed the surgery came back to tell us that all went well and Joey did great. Within a few minutes, they called us back because Joey had woken up. We could hear him screaming down the hall! Apparently, Joey would make for a very mean drunk. ;) He really struggled coming out of the anesthesia, and even I couldn't comfort him. Turns out, when our children are in any kind of serious distress it's Daddy or no one! Danny was able to get him calmed enough to get us home. I hated seeing Joey so upset and obviously in so much pain...

I knew I'd feel better once I saw him smile again. When we got him in the carseat and started on our way home, I got the first glimpse of my Poseph! I knew we'd be okay. :)

When we got home, Joey was still more pain that we would have expected...and definitely more than we wanted to see. We gave him a dose of oxy, and were surprised when it didn't really help. It was about 4 hours after coming home that he finally had a wet diaper and we built up enough courage to take a look at him. As soon as we opened up his diaper we knew why he was in so much pain! The stiff foam bandage that was meant to surround his penis and keep it from rubbing on the diaper wasn't around his penis anymore. It was still taped to his abdomen above his penis, though, so every time we held him or he moved that stiff piece of foam pressed against his freshly circumcised penis! We took that off, and Joey was perfectly fine after that!

We're so glad all went well and even more glad that it's behind us now! Hopefully it's the last surgery Joey will know for a very long time...