Surgery Update

We are so appreciative of all the calls, texts, e-mails & Facebook messages sending prayers & checking on Cole this week. I'm happy to report that he is doing just fine. His incisions are a little tender & his throat is still sore from the tube, but otherwise he's doing great. He's been eating pretty well since about midday yesterday, and he spent a good bit of yesterday up playing Uno and action figures. This morning he has been smiling, laughing & talking a lot more, and it's nice to have our spunky Cole back!

The surgery itself went well, but 20 minutes into what should have been at least an hour long procedure we were called back to talk to the surgeon. We couldn't imagine what he would have found that he'd need to talk with us so soon, and our thoughts were running wild as we waited for him to come in. The surgeon walked in holding up the picture of Cole's belly I'd sent him, and then he told us that once they got the camera inside they couldn't find a hernia! We were all shocked! The bump that appears on Cole's belly when he bears down has every characteristic of a hernia, but there is no hole in the muscle. Since he hadn't yet made the incision in the "hernia" site and since Cole doesn't have any pain or symptoms from it, we all agreed it's best to just leave it alone for now rather than trying to fix his muscle when we aren't really sure what's wrong to begin with. So instead of a hernia repair Cole ended up having more of a diagnostic/exploratory laproscopic procedure, which should make for a much easier recovery for him. It's likely either some sort of spasm or weakness in the muscle, but I'm hoping to get more answers when we follow up next week. While it's a little hard not to feel like poor Cole had to endure surgery for nothing, it's relieving to know that whatever that big bulge is has been checked out thoroughly and isn't anything concerning. 

Here's a recap of surgery day:

The day of surgery we spent a lot more time at the hospital than we'd anticipated. His surgery started 3 hours later than we'd been told it would, which meant we were there for 5 hours just waiting for them to begin. Cole, of course, had not eaten or had anything to drink since 10:30 the night before.  He was a trooper, though, and only mentioned being hungry once.

In the pre-op room he refused to go near the hospital bed for the first hour or so, instead he sat in our laps & watched Spongebob on Netflix. Thank goodness for iPhones and Netflix streaming!

Finally he not-so-willingly agreed to put on the hospital gown. He was NOT happy about the gown being backless, and by the time they wheeled him back he'd put his clothes back on.

The Child Life Specialist came to help prep him for what to expect in the operating room. She left his blue raspberry scented mask with him, and every few minutes he would pick it up & smell it. It was adorable!

 

By the time they came to take him back he was pretty annoyed with being there. The nurse anesthetist was great & as soon as she showed him the games on her iPhone he was content to go along. Another nurse was handing him an iPad as they wheeled him away. We were once again very impressed with how great OLOL hospital is with kids.

Once the procedure was over we were called back to the recovery room. In true Cole style, he woke up screaming "I HATE THIS PLACE!!". Then he kept crying & saying "ouchie" that his tummy (incisions), throat & IV were hurting. Kids often have a hard time coming out of anesthesia, and we knew to expect that since this was his 4th time having it. He had some trouble keeping fluids down, but otherwise recovery has been very smooth.

We're very thankful it's all over with now!