Whew, glad the day is over with. Can't say it was the best experience but Michael did well during the surgery. We are so thankful to the many prayers said on behalf of Michael, and especially thankful for our friend Deb, who is watching Phoebe the next few days while we work with Michael. She is Phoebe's grandma, in every sense of the word.
Michael had his hamstring(heelcord) lengthened today. We hope it's a cure, but the ortho warned us that he may have to have another surgery if the heel doesn't stabilize on it's own and let his foot dorsiflex to a normal position. I'm not sure I'm quite up to another surgery, at least not in the near future. You would think I would think nothing of it as a nurse, but I've seen things go awry(why can't you forget those), and that's in normal, healthy, routine cases. I also dislike watching kids in pain, and while tolerable but painful working with most other children, my own just throws me for a loop. It might be in part that we worked so hard to get Michael, something a nonadoptive parent would never understand, but the fear of something happening was very stressful for me. Praise God he did well and is recovering nicely.
It was an early 430 am start to get to the hospital at 615 am. But it was nice to be the first case. We love our surgeon, he's brilliant, spent a year on the Clinton medical team, and even knows what Corregidor is and what it stands for. He took time to look at the pictures from our Philippines trip that I was putting in an album after the surgery. He also looked out for us. Our anesthesiologist of the morning was quite arrogant-making our experience less than it should have been. He came into our room without having read the chart(one of my pet peeves), routinely and without compassion explained everything to us, and without knowing what the surgeon was going to do(had he read the chart he may have figured it out), suggested we do a block post surgery for pain. Thank God our surgeon overheard, the first thing he said was, that is not necessary, and said he would speak to the anesthesiologist about it. Our surgeon said if it was his son, he wouldn't do it. John felt it was revenue enhancing, since it wasn't necessary yet he was pushing it, unfortunately, there are doctors like that. I was so ticked I lost it and when the nurse anesthestitist came in and asked if we spoke to the anesthesiologist, I calmly said, you mean that arrogant bastard? Oops, not one of my finer moments, comes from years of speaking my mind as a nurse. I used to get evaluations that said, "Genelene is a very direct communicator, as well as compassionate while efficient and highly skilled." I know, I need to work on this. And it is a very rare ocassion that I swear, in fact it has been years. Good thing John was around to keep me level, I think he is one of the best doctors around! As well as Michael's surgeon. The nurses must have caught wind of this because they were very nice to us. They let us come back to the surgery recovery room-the one before the rest of the world gets to see, much earlier than a nonhealthcare worker would, and Mom was the first person Michael really woke up to.
He doesn't seem to be in a lot of pain, but the cast will be a challenge these next few weeks. Michael was really funny, he didn't want to get into his shirt. It was his way of saying, not until you take the cast off. We had to distract him with a new Thomas the Tank engine, and tell him he had a surprise waiting at home so we could leave. Once awake, he also wasn't getting back into that bed without screaming...now at home he seems to be adjusting fairly well, keeps talking about his cast, and saying he wants it removed.
I'll post pics tomorrow of him and his cast. I forgot to take any today.
Pre-op prep with a casted doll
Playdoh from the child-life specialist
Bubblegum Lipsmacker to make the mask more palatable
Michael did his own mask
615 am is waay too early! But we're glad you were happy, for a shortwhile anyway
enjoying the noise his cast makes. And he is jumping on his trampoline. Yikes, not sure I'll tell the ortho that...no wonder he is making Michael wear the cast longer than we originally thought, to our dismay. He keeps asking about a bath, and going swimming...I keep having to tell him later. He calls it his big OUWEE!
