When we went to our appointment, she agreed that he needed surgery, and scheduled us for surgery the following week. Her waiting room is full of toys, so he was excited to get to go back again. The day of our surgery, we got to report to the surgical center (instead of her office), but thankfully it was set up with toys too. Owen played away as he waited to be called back. Kendi took care of Kate that morning, so Scott could be there with me to get Owen all settled. I was happy to have Scott by my side. Even though everyone had told me this would be simple, I still was nervous about sending my sweet little boy into surgery.
Finally it was our time to head back. Owen got a gown to wear, and made himself cozy on his special bed with wheels.
His pre-op nurse, Bill, was such a sweet man, and had us all feeling very at ease.
Owen got to pick the flavor he wanted put into his mask, and then got to practice smelling it. He picked Orange Cream, but kept telling us that it smelled like chicken.
We met with his surgeon (the pee doctor), and with the anesthesiologist. They all explained things very well, and Owen charmed them all with his sweet personality.
Finally it was off to surgery. Scott headed home to put Kate down for a nap, and I was left to wait till he was out of surgery. It only took about 15 minutes, then the doctor came out to tell me that everything had gone well and went over post op instructions. Then she sent me back out to the waiting room to wait till he started to wake up.
After about 10 more minutes, they came to say he was waking up, and brought me back to see him. That was the hard part. He didn't wake up well. He wasn't really coherant, and was thrashing around on the bed in pain. I tried my best to calm him, but he wasn't calming down. It was rough. I think most moms would have been freaking out and break down seeing their child in so much pain, but I held it together. Another nurse came over, and I heard our post-op nurse say, "Mom has 7 kids, so she's totally chill". That made me smile. The surgery was so quick, they didn't have time to start an IV (just anesthesia through the mask), so they couldn't give him pain medication through the IV. They ordered some medicine for him to take orally, and got him settled down enough to drink it. Once they got the medicine in him, they rolled him away to a room with a TV, so he could watch cartoons to help calm him down. Between the pain medication and the TV, it did the trick, and he settled down. He still was uncomfortable, and still out of sorts, but he got better and better over then next hour.
They brought a Popsicle for him that he ate, and I got him to drink some water. He had to go into surgery on an empty stomach, so he hadn't eaten anything since the night before. One of the post op instructions was to push fluids. They said it would sting for the first few days every time he went pee, so if we could push fluids so his pee would be diluted, it would help with the stinging.
I asked him if he could manage a smile to send to Dad, and this is what I got.
Another Popsicle. By this time, they were getting ready to send us home, but wanted to see him pee before they let him go.
I asked Owen if he needed to pee, and he said he thought he did. He got out of bed (he insisted on doing it himself), and walked to the bathroom. As he stood in front of the toilet, I watched my little three year old turn white, and I knew he was about to get sick. He turned to took at me for help, then threw up all over himself, the floor, and the side of the toilet. I held him as he threw up over and over, then the nurse and I cleaned him and the bathroom up, and sent him back to bed.
We waited a half hour, then started over with getting him to drink water and juice. After another hour, with him keeping those fluids down, he was able to get up and pee. He winced a little in pain as he peed, but was a trooper and made it through. They gave us the go ahead to load up and go home. This little red wagon, that transported him out to the suburban, was his favorite part of the morning.
On the drive home, Owen got sick again and threw up. Thankfully, I had brought a bag with me from the hospital, and he was good about using it, so we avoided a big mess. Poor little boy!
When we got home, he asked for Macaroni. I figured that if that sounded good, he must be feeling a little better. He ate it and kept it down, and didn't get sick again. The next week he healed amazingly fast. He was in very little discomfort, and he could pee straight! But even more than peeing straight, his "flow" is greatly improved. He used to take 5 minutes to pee, and I used to think he just had a really large bladder. But since his surgery, he can pee super fast - he just had poor flow before. Now he is completely healed and it's a distant memory.
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