At the kids' three year old check-up, their doctor noticed something a little out of order with Daniel. Not to be too specific, we decided to refer to it as his "diaper region".
In explaining it to the kids, we told them that Daniel had to go to the doctor and would not be at school that day. Caroline was confused, insisting, "Daniel isn't sick!"
I explained, "No, he's not sick, but there's a little something that the doctor has to fix."
Caroline: "Where?"
Mommy: "In his diaper"
Daniel, in amazement: "They're going to fix my BUNS???"
Well, no, not exactly, but let's go with it...
Wednesday morning, everyone got up together, knowing that Daniel had to stay home. But he got dressed with everyone else and then had a minor meltdown when it came to saying goodbye. The plan was for Daddy to take the kids to school and Mommy to stay home with Daniel, but Daniel wanted to go with them in the car, and he wanted Mommy to drive. OK. But he wanted to go in "the small car" (what the kids call the SUV, to distinguish it from the van), so after a little wrangling, we decided to all go to school in the small car, drop Max & Caroline off (with big hugs and kisses for Daniel first) and then bring him home.
He wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight except for clear liquids and couldn't have anything to drink after 10am, so between 9 and 10 he had three popsicles and a full bottle of apple juice. And then promptly peed through his pants the minute I had put his other pants in the wash! Thank goodness he has a lot of pairs!
We left for the hospital a little after 9 and headed across the bridge to Oakland. When we got there Daniel and I sat down in admitting and he showed off his spider-man doll to the clerk, who just so happened to have an Avengers puzzle laying around to give him for being a good boy!
Then it was into the waiting room for a few minutes before being called back to the small pre-op room where we met with all the doctors and nurses.
First, he got all of his vitals taken.
And he showed off his cool bracelet.
And then it was just more and more waiting.
At one point the nurse pointed out the TV and showed us where the PBS station was and we watched the end of a Barney program and the beginning of a Caillou. When Caroline heard about that later, she kept asking if she could go to the hospital to watch Barney and Caillou. Hello? We can do that at home, silly girl!
They gave him a gown and hat and slipper socks to wear, but he absolutely refused to change his clothes. When the doctor came in to review the procedure and answer any questions, he asked to listen to Daniel's heart, which got him to take off his shirt, and to check the diaper area, which got him to remove his pants, but he was absolutely NOT taking off his socks or putting on the gown. Luckily, the nurses said it wasn't a problem, that they'd slide the gown on him after he was "out".
They gave him some "happy juice" so that he'd be a little loopy and not so scared about leaving us and rolling into the OR (hey - where was OUR happy juice?), which made him a little wobbly, but did not stop him from showing off his spider-man! The anesthesiologist assured him he could take Spidey into the operation with him, which I thought was hilarious. Because he was not too sure on his feet - and was wearing nothing but a diaper and socks - the OR nurse commented that she might have to just carry him down the hall. I pointed out that on one of our forays through the halls to keep him from getting bored he'd seen some little red wagons, and everyone agreed he'd love a ride in that.
The Ambulatory Surgery department has a super tiny waiting room, so they send you to the main lobby to wait during the procedure. It's down the elevator and around a bunch of corners (or maybe we just went the long way), so we headed that way, then to the cafeteria to grab some lunch, then back to the lobby to distract ourselves for a while. Less than 90 minutes later, we got the call that he was out of surgery, it had all gone really well, and we could come up and see him in recovery.
When we got upstairs, he was passed out in a crib, with Spidey lying next to him with his own little name tag. We pulled up chairs and waited for another 30 to 45 minutes for him to wake up, talking with the doctors as they came in to check on him. The anesthesiologist told us she knew it was time to put him under when he held up his doll and proclaimed, "This Spider-man, blah blah boo bee blah blah" and the rest just came out as gibberish.
He woke up cranky and we got him up and hugged him, at which point he promptly fell back asleep in my arms.
When he'd finally totally come to, we got him dressed and headed out to the parking garage. He had been super excited about the garage and the elevator when we came in, but was a little subdued about it all on the way out.
Thursday we didn't have nearly the problems at school-time. Max and Caroline understood that Daniel had to stay home to get better, but they would be able to tell all their friends and teachers about his surgery going well, and Daniel just wanted to wear his PJs and hang on the couch for the morning.
He only took one dose of his pain medication, and if you didn't know he'd had surgery, you'd never suspect, he has bounced back so well! And Mommy and Daddy are SO glad to have the whole thing over and behind us!
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