1 week and 1 Day Post Surgery

It's so hard to believe but little man had his surgery a week and a day ago.  It feels like it was yesterday and it also feels like it was forever ago.  The family is doing well - but let me share with you the past week.

There are quite a few days & dates in my life that I don't think I'll ever forget

• May 21, 2005 (Married Jeremy Ellis)
• July 21, 2007 (Bought our first house)
• April 6, 2011 (Met our wonderful daughter Anna Christine)
• July 23, 2014 (Welcomed our incredible son James Lawson into the world)

those are just a few - and August 8, 2014 is proving to be another one of those unforgettable dates.  Neither Jer nor I were really sleeping soundly that night.  We had tucked Anna in and told her that Gran would be taking her to school in the morning.  We tried explaining to her that we were taking Jamesey to the doctor - she was so sweet and just kissed him and told him to get better.  I think she and Jamesey were the only ones in the house who slept well that night.  Jamesey had been given a 6 a.m. arrival time for his surgery at CHOP - I am so grateful for that early morning.  Little man couldn't eat anything after 11 p.m. but we woke him for a 10:30 snack to hopefully hold him over.  

At 3:30 a.m alarms went off - but truthfully, I think we'd all been awake for a while before then.  Just thinking - and praying.  Nervous - and hopeful.  It's a 2 hour drive to CHOP and we definitely wanted to arrive on time.  We left at 3:45 and I was on edge to say the least.  Jer was a rock - I felt like a mess.  As we drove - little man slept - peacefully - thank you Lord! We made it to Philly safely and without event - parked in the garage under the Wood Building and prepared to head up to the surgery reception area.  Once we registered Jamesey it was just a matter of waiting - and continuing to pray that our happy baby stayed happy until the surgery and that the surgery would go well.  It was incredible  - there were so many families in the reception area.  I couldn't help looking around and wondering what procedure each child was there for.  So many different families but we were all there because we love our kids and we want the best for them.  It was an incredible reminder .

The nursing staff took us back to a room at about 6:15 and we talked through vitals, changed little man into a hospital gown and waited for the anesthesiologist to come and talk with us.  Every detail about little man was rehashed over and over again and the patience of our sweet little Jamesey was tested as his hungry belly couldn't understand why he wasn't being fed.  Finally, at 7:30 they came and administered his first sedative to relax him so that they could prep him for surgery.  It was quite possibly the hardest thing I've done (so far in my life) to watch Jer place him on a gurney and then take a moment and squeeze in to give Jamesey a kiss and not know what would be the outcome.  We were ushered into a waiting area for parents and sat down to start a very long wait.

You can tell that the group at CHOP is used to dealing with worried parents (and they are wonderful with children too).  Once they had settled us in we were informed that updates would be brought out to us regularly by the social workers who had clearances to check in to the OR's.  There was also a large board that allowed parents to check the status of surgeries by last initial, first initial, & date of birth for the patient.  At about 9 a.m we had our first update - they had begun surgery on the right ear at 8:49 a.m  - and then we waited some more.  The next update we had they were still working on the right ear.  Finally, they came and told us that the team had begun the process on the left ear.  

An eternity later someone new from the audiology group came out to tell us that they were closing! Poor person - I lost it - the tears just came - I think it was from relief - but who knows! :) It's not like the tears were ever very far away that day (or still) but I have to say that all patience, all calm and all peace that we had or have had has come from our Faith and from your Prayers.  Thank you - your reassuring texts, comments and calls were a gift - we are so thankful for you - our community.  You have helped in so many ways - more ways than you'll ever know. 

1:30 p.m. we were moved to a private room to meet with the surgeon.  The surgery had gone well and little man was in recovery.  We would be able to see him soon.  I couldn't think clearly enough to ask questions, all I wanted was to hold little man and see for myself that he was ok.  That this hadn't been the worst decision ever to subject him to an invasive procedure and that he was ok - that he really was alright.  When we finally saw him, laying on that gurney, still drowsy from the meds - well I still don't think my heart has recovered.  Thankfully, the nurses were used to teary mommas and relieved daddys.  They helped me to settle into a rocker and snuggle my little man despite wires, monitors, bandages and IV's.  Oh friends, the bandage on his head - - hearing that beep of the monitors as he worked to sort out his oxygen levels -- well, we're moving forward but suffice to say it was hard.  

By 3:30 his meds had been picked up from the pharmacy and he was ready to head home.  We were too - we wanted to have our family all together.  The drive went pretty well - even leaving Philly at 4:30 on a Friday the traffic wasn't bad.  Little man was still very out of it and thankfully slept for most of the drive.  It wasn't until we were about 15 minutes away from the house that he woke up miserable and just wanted to be held.  Once we were home - I was so happy to oblige.  

His first night we were up regularly dosing him with his meds.  Thankfully my mom was able to stay with us and bonus - she's an RN! Little man did so well & before we knew it that cute little wonderful turkey was pulling his bandages off of his head all by himself! He was rolling around on the floor & starting to act more like himself again.  I think that was the point where I finally started to feel like this might not have been the worst parenting decision in the history of the world.  

The next two days we kept steadily dosing him on the hydrocodone but by Tuesday he was only on Tylenol.  By Thursday NO MEDS at all and he was sleeping mostly through the night.  He's a champ - there is no denying that.  By Sunday he was completely back to himself - giggling and rolling around, chewing on everything (by everything I mean every arm, hand, foot, leg) in reach.  Today you can see the glue beginning to peel off of the incisions.  The incisions themselves look amazing - there's a little bit of swelling but everything seems to have gone well.  Now we live each day to the fullest as we wait for September 10 and his activation to see what happens next.  

We keep praying and we keep hoping - I have to share a few of the "God Kisses" (thank you King family for that description).  From a person with a cochlear implant showing up in a video that I watched during the surgery to little man putting his arm out to keep himself from falling over (the first he's done that), God has been so good.  Verses keep appearing that provide reassurance that God is in control and cares for His sparrows. So many of you have prayed, cried and hoped with us and we can't begin to thank you enough.  Keep hoping with us! We love you!