Surgery #4: Done and Dusted

Samuel had his surgery bright and early Wednesday morning. Since everyone in our house had been ill, there was a question mark over his head right up to the end. His doctors and I agreed that it would be bad for him to get ill during post-op recovery but that entertaining the "what ifs" wasn't worth it. Off Sam went.

I walked Samuel into the operating room, stroked his little arms, and sang to him until he was asleep. This made that moment of saying good-bye so much easier; instead of having him taken from me by strangers in surgical masks, I got to be the last person he heard and saw before he went under. An hour later, Sam's eye surgeon found us to say that the strabismus repair had gone beautifully. Another hour after that, Sam's general surgeon found us to say that the orchidopexy was smooth and successful also. Sam did so well that we thought he might come home the same day!

Of course, Sam had plans for a bit of drama centred around some angry breath-holding episodes and dropped oxygen saturations. This didn't freak me out at all but he did manage to send one nurse running in a panic (while I tended to him myself) and have another nurse ordering him "take a breath! take a breath!" every time he cried (because angry 21 month olds are notoriously compliant with such directives). It was an odd experience to be comforting his nurses and explaining what he does and how to deal with it.

Sam stayed on oxygen support to help him recover from the general anesthetic and so we were admitted for a sleepover. It took 9 hours for them to find us a bed in the hospital so that we could leave the Day Surgery unit. I was happy to get to our old unit where there were nurses who knew Sam and where I could take a shower. 

By today, Sam was feeling stronger, sitting up to play, and offering up grins. He came off of oxygen support, flirted with some nurses, ate some bad hospital food, and took a nap to prove that he could hold his oxygen saturations even when sleeping.

Now, we are home. His eyes are bloodshot where the muscles were cut and there are teeny blue knots where the stitches are. When he cries, blood oozes out the corners of his eyes, which is a little horror-movie-ish. However, I can already see his eyes straightening out and the nystagmus settling down. Very cool. Sam is bouncing back from all of that remarkably well. Better than his mother, actually, but I think we've come to expect that. ;)

Post-op snuggle with Daddy. 

Using his new eyes to watch a video on Mommy's laptop.
(The laptop is perched on Sam's medical file, which weighs nearly 20 pounds just like Sam!)

Cruising in his crib and ready to go home.