Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The QUICK Surgery - Thereby Avoiding Worry (I think)


I’ve started this blog post several times. Since I don’t know the ending, I don’t know how to word the beginning. Here goes... It all started when (insert waving fingers here easing us into the correct scene)

I crawled back into bed after having a rough, almost sleepless night. The kids were on the bus and I was looking forward to several hours of rest, relaxation and quite possibly some much needed sleep. My darling daughter woke up, so I fed and changed her. Then we snuggled under the warm blankets, inviting sleep to overcome us.

Music filled the silence as my phone announced the incoming call. Sure, I was waiting for this call to tell me when my son’s surgery would be, but I was expecting it much later in the day. Eight A.M. is an uncool time for a phone call.

“Hello?”

“Hi! This is the nurse with Urology. We have an opening for surgery tomorrow. Can you be here in an hour?”

“Um. No. It takes at least 3 hours to get there from my house. Is this a joke?”

“Can you come today?”

“Well, I guess,” I hedged. “My husband just went back to work yesterday.”

“Oh. Well, I can TRY to get you scheduled for next week, but that won’t be a “sure thing”. The soonest we can be sure about a surgery after tomorrow isn’t until mid-April.” The keyboard was clicking ferociously through the phone lines as she searched the schedules.

“If you put it that way, schedule it.”

“Great! See you soon!”

And away we went! I ran around the house like a chicken with her head cut off for several minutes, tossing clothes in the bags, into the washer, dragging clothes back out of the washer, loading the car, waking up kids, throwing them into clothes then hustling them out the door and into the car. The roads were great, the drive beautiful. During all this, I was talking, texting, facebooking, and IMing and trying to get a hold of Jay.

We arrived in SLC and dropped the kiddos off at my sister’s house then headed up the hill to the hospital. I hadn’t received clear instructions other than to COME. First, they sent us to Same Day Surgery. They weren’t expecting us so they called around to see where we were supposed to be. Then they sent us downstairs to Admitting. We got the paperwork all squared away and went to the Children’s Surgical Unit. Interestingly, someone screwed up Jaydon’s birthday & age. They thought they were admitting a 1 year old instead of a 10 year old so we were put in NICU. They scrambled around for a bit and finally moved us to the M Pod where we waited for several more hours before the chaos began.

An IV and an NG tube were placed; I’m not sure which was worse. They started pumping him full of bowel prep fluids – and we waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, everything started happening. This poor kid has been through the ringer. The nurse waited for Jay to get to the hospital before starting the next phase of the prep work. At about 2am, I hit the wall. I’m so glad Jay was here to pick up the pieces that I dropped. I crashed hard & slept through the hourly procedures & the 6am lab visit. 

At any rate, Jaydon is in surgery. We are about 2 hours into a 6 hour surgery. The nurse has reported that he’s doing well. An epidural was placed to help with the pain & discomfort following the surgery. Thank you for all your prayers! I have been surprisingly calm all day. Your prayers on our behalf are such a comfort and a blessing.

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