Colin had his first surgery today that he was able to understand. Around 1, he got tubes put in his ears - and that's so minor it's hardly even considered surgery anymore.
But, today he got his tonsils and adenoids removed. We didn't really talk about the surgery much before this morning - we didn't want him to get worried about it before he needed to.
I looked up some good ways to explain the surgery to a child. He seemed to be comfortable with it all when we talked about it on the way to the hospital. We discussed the 'special nap' he would take, and how he would wear a 'batman mask' that would have some special, smelly air in it that would make him sleepy, and how he would wake up with a sore throat, but that mommy and daddy would be with him when he got up.
Colin did WAY better than Brian and I could ever have imagined.
There wasn't a single tear - not ONE!
The hospital did some really cute things for kids there - he got to drive a Jeep car into their surgery, he got to pick a stuffed animal, he had a goodie bag of little trinkets to take home, and the best part of all - the surgery was on time and we ran right on schedule!
Colin played around in his Jeep for a while when we were getting checked in
A blurry pic of Daddy and Colin while we were waiting
Such a happy camper even without anything to eat or drink
I snapped this picture real quick before he drove off to the surgery -
he was so brave!
They took him back at 8:30 am and we were in talking to the surgeon by 9:05 am.
He said his tonsils were HUGE (and we have a picture to prove it - the right and left tonsil were each 1.5 inches in length) and his adenoids were enlarged as well.
He said everything went great and that we should focus all our attention on keeping Colin hydrated.
We waited about another 10 minutes and went back to see him in the recovery room.
This is what we saw...
I'm serious when I say he didn't move a muscle for about 10 minutes - just drank his juice and stared off at the other end of the room. No tears, whining, nothing.
Eventually he wanted me to hold him, which I was super excited about. He also really wanted his IV out of his hand.
Finally waking up a bit
And while Colin was in my arms,
Batman kept his bed warm
The nurse anesthetist had put on a bonnet and little booties on his feet, as well as gloves on his hands. I guess he did that while Colin was having his surgery - it was pretty cute to see Batman all decked in his surgery gear like Colin was.
We were on our way home by 10:30 am - and stopped to get a chocolate smoothie (per Colin's request) on the way. He watched the Lego movie and was ready to get outside to play by around 1 pm. Too bad he has physical activity restrictions for the next 2 weeks. The doctor says the pain will escalate until about day 3-4, then we have the highest risk of bleeding around day 6-7. He will be off school for a week and then we'll see how he feels. I think it's going to be pretty tough to keep this busy kid sedentary for the next 14 days.
In other pictures - I found these on my phone
Maggie and I ran to CVS over the weekend and she insisted on trying on this mask -
We called her "old man Maggie"
And a picture of the kids on the way home from gymnastics one day
Colin looking all hip and cool!
Maggie looking like a little diva!
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