Ian's Surgery

I woke up at 4:15 and was unable to go back to sleep due to nerves regarding Ian's surgery. Paul wasn't able to keep Ian up last night. Thankfully he did sleep 11.25 hours. I went and got him immediately (5:45), and I expected him to scream until we left. Paul's parents arrived shortly after he woke up, and we left at about 6:25am. Nadia had awakened at 6:15. Ian actually didn't cry that much, and he fell asleep in the car even though he hadn't eaten in 12 hours. We arrived at 7:00, and as long as I kept holding him while I was standing and bouncing him, the most he did was fuss. I was amazed. When they had us walk back to the pre-operative area, I almost started crying. The shirt and pants they had me put on him would have been big on Nadia much less Ian. I held him while standing and bouncing until 7:50 when we gave him some valium orally. He normally won't take Tylenol, but because he was so thirsty he consumed most of it. It was very effective as he fell asleep in my arms in less than 5 minutes. About 25 minutes later they came to take him to surgery. I started crying when I handed him off to the nurse who was carrying him to the OR. My pastor had arrived while we were in this area, and he stayed with us for the next 4 hours. They gave us a pager so we would know when we could come back and join him in the recovery room.

We were told it would take about one hour, but the doctor didn't come out until 90 minutes later. When he asked to have us come back to a private room to talk, we were worried. I was relieved when he said Ian was fine, but then he told us he had encountered a lot of problems. He wasn't able to complete the surgery as planned. He did circumcise Ian and use that skin in the reconstruction that he was able to do and also straighten out the urethra. The rest he's saving for the next 1-2 surgeries. The next one will likely be in 9 months. They want to do that one before he's potty trained. The most upsetting thing was that he said that some of the problems might not be able to be corrected, and he wouldn't elaborate what the consequences of those problems might be. He said that they can't fix the part of the urethra that comes up from the bladder and that Ian's is much smaller than it should be. They had to use a catheter that is usually only used for newborn babies (less than 1/2 the size of what they usually use for a 10 month old). We go back next Wednesday to have the catheter taken out. Ian did pretty well today - probably in part because of the local block they put in his spine (near his tailbone) as well as the tylenol with codeine we were giving him every 4 hours. He has to wear 2 diapers (one for the catheter to drain into). His "parts" look awful. Awful is too mild a word to use. It makes me want to cry just to see it, and I haven't cleaned it yet. I hope it heals quickly as it's torture for me to look at it right now. Wednesady can't come soon enough for me.

His appointment was first scheduled for 10:00, but I moved it to 3:30 so Nadia can still go to her first gymnastics class. I registered her for a toddler class a few days ago that starts on Wednesdays at 10:45. Ian was supposed to have the second part of his flu shot on Tuesday, but I called the pediatrician today and pushed that back as I can't imagine inflicting any additional pain on the little guy right now. Nadia in contrast had a great day today. Her grandparents took her to the playground and McDonald's.