Surgery Day!
Leave it to our son to ensure we have a rollercoaster of a day. Even on surgery day.
When our day started today, we thought our timetable looked like this:
- 6 am – Check-In
- 8 am – Take HG back for surgery
- 1-2 pm – Surgery complete, HG in recovery
- 3 pm – CT Scan
We’d finally get to see HG again after his CT scan was complete.
That’s how we thought today was going to go.
The day did not exactly go according to plan.
Check-In
Check-In went as expected at 6 this morning. All the typical things. Signing papers and getting HG ready for surgery, including giving him a bit of “happy medicine” to help calm him for when they took him back for his anesthesia and surgery.
They said this medicine should knock him out. Instead, you can see the results below. We basically had a drunk infant on our hands. Which helped lighten the mood and give a bit of laughter at what was a stressful situation.
We talked to both Dr. Hyer and Dr. Wilhoit again.
Hyer clearly had her game face on this morning. Dr. Wilhoit continued to just impress me. Not only with his demeanor, but his knowledge and how he presented it to you. Not like someone who wants to impress you with his knowledge, but wants to use it as a warm, soft blanket of comfort.
Taken back for surgery
After the nurses took HG (with not a tear shed, by him at least) we took our stuff to HG’s room, only to be swept up by going to the adjacent hospital to get Mr. Harrison registered for his CT scan later in the day.
That took a bit of time. Maybe not as much as it could have, but it kept us busy enough for a short time.
The nurse checked in with us just before 9 am, saying that the anesthesia and epidural went great and they officially started surgery. She let us know that she’d give us updates every hour and a half. So we settled in for what we were expecting to be a long day, just sitting and waiting.
An hour and a half goes by. We receive a call, not to give us an update on how the surgery was going, but that surgery was complete. They sutured him up, and that Dr. Hyer was preparing to apply his casts.
WHAT?!
Surgery Complete
Seriously, the number of possibilities that go through your head when a surgery that you expected to take up the bulk of the day is complete before lunch is unexplainable.
So, in the blink of an eye, we went from stress over surgery and HG’s condition, to wondering what happened for surgery to be over so quickly! Was something wrong? Did she discover something unexpected? They said she was applying his cast, so clearly she did something or she wouldn’t be casting him. What’s going on?!
Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long for Dr. Hyer to come in and talk to us. Letting us know everything went well. One reason things went so quickly was that she “over books” so she has time to not only work because AMCers can be trickier with hip dislocations but also to give time for the whole anesthesia and epidural to be taken care of.
All of which went smoothing and without issue.
So we’ve learned that our son can be efficient with surgeries, I suppose.
Once HG was out of recovery and rolled into the room with us, he had already started coming out of the fog a bit. He was going through his gambit of facial expressions to the enjoyment of the nurses, but it wasn’t long until he wanted Mommy because he was hungry!
It wasn’t a full 12 hours since the last time HG had eaten, but it had been long enough. Even on pain meds, baby boy was hungry! He’s had a few things to say, not a lot, but he’s been able to go back and forth between resting and eating.
CT Scan
Despite the expectations of the day being completely torn apart, the CT scan remained on the schedule for 3, which involved transferring HG to a wagon for his stroll down the hall.
This was the first time we saw the full casting, and let’s just say; baby boy got him a big ole booty right now!
Thankfully, between the early morning, full belly, and pain meds, HG stayed chilled throughout the entire thing. The technician even made a comment that he was the best baby he had ever dealt with. The sound of the CT scanner didn’t even phase baby boy.
Since coming back from the CT scan, it’s just been resting and eating. Dr. Hyer let us know that the results from the CT scan came back and she had already reviewed them and everything looked great.
On to tomorrow
As the day has gone on, you can tell when he’s hurting, and no doubt tomorrow is likely going to be a challenge.
They plan on removing his epidural at 3 am, so that’s our next “event” and we’re hoping we may get discharged tomorrow.
Even if we’re discharged, we’re still hanging around Greenville for a few more days as Dr. Hyer wants to get an X-ray on Friday, just to make sure everything is staying in place and we’re on the proper path to recovery.
We’re still a few days from coming back home, but thankfully surgery is behind us and we’re on the road to recovery.