Surgery - part one

Back to some therapeutic blogging for me as we wait for our wee Super Sam to come back from his diaphragm repair surgery. A little after 9 a.m., we walked Sam and his IV pole and oxygen over to the OR to meet his surgical team. The anesthesiologist's start to the surgery was expected to be an hour - but at 11:00, his surgeon still hadn't been called into the OR. This would have been worrisome if we'd allowed ourselves to go there. But we didn't. And we don't. I have learned to give over these things that are not mine. This part is for some really, really smart, amazing, capable, dedicated doctors. And god. I don't have to carry it. The last thing Sam's surgeon said to us is "we're going to take really good care of him." I believe her.

Chris and I went for something to eat and we talked about all the ways this surgery is different from his first diaphragm repair. This is a patch, not a creation of a diaphragm, and we think the reherniation was identified early so that hopefully things won't be too messy in there. Samuel is so much stronger now. He knows how to eat and babble and grow. He has had six months of breathing on his own. The purpose of this surgery is to fix him up and get him back to being a normal baby as soon as possible. The purpose of the last surgery was to see if he could survive.

Chris and I are set up in our ICU room waiting to see our Sam again; it's been nearly five hours since I kissed his wee head and told him no monkey business in there. (However, I did mention that his "Secret Lung" trick was a huge hit last time so it's okay if he wants to pull something like that out of the hat again.) We got a message from the OR saying that "everything is going well and Mary (Dr. Brindle, our surgeon) is happy with things." And so we wait. The noises and smells and functions of this place are familiar. Even better, the lovely people are familiar. I thought being back here would be scarier or somehow difficult. But it's oddly comforting. What he went through within these walls the first time around was so much bigger than this that it just feels like it has to be okay.

More news soon.

Sam and Daddy sharing a pre-op giggle.

Mommy gets ready to send Sam off to surgery.

Sam has pretty much never worn hospital clothes
- but he looks kind of cute in his open-at-the-back mini hospital gown.

"No need to worry, folks. I am SUPER SAM."