Belton's Surgery

A couple of weeks ago, Belton had a Bilateral Inguinal Hernia Repair Surgery. We had a week to prepare (emotionally, mostly) that this was going to happen. At the time, the doctors thought that he just had a Communicating Hydrocele- which is fixed the same way as a hernia. It's similar, but fluid is passing back and forth, instead of intestine or bowl with a hernia.

There was no traffic that morning, so we arrived at the surgery center a little bit early. We decided to let Belton play in this little play area before taking him into the waiting room and checking in.

I think it's safe to say he had fun!

We went in and had a great pre-op experience. Belton was fine, for the most part. He didn't like new people touching him, but everything went well there.

 They had movies and toys to keep him entertained, but all he wanted to do was watch Super Why!

They had me give him a drug so that he would start fading and it would have an amnesia effect. This is so kids aren't scared (knowing what's coming) in case they ever have to have surgery again! I'm grateful because Belton has two doctors that are on the second floor of this surgery center we were in. I'm glad he doesn't seem to remember what happened in there! This is what Belton looked like about 30 minutes later. The drug was really getting into his system.

The nurse took him from us and he very half-heartedly said, "mama" but that was it. No fussing. No crying. What a blessing! After Belton was carried back to the OR, Matt and I were taken to a private consultation room to wait in during the surgery. I had done all of my crying/worrying about the surgery the week before, so we went into this room and Matt worked on school work while I read my book. About 35 minutes later, the surgeon came in and told us that everything had gone well and that Belton had actually had two hernias! Not just the Communicating Hydrocele as they had thought. But the surgery was a success, Belton was fine!

We waited a bit longer and he was brought by our room. The nurse got us and we followed her and Belton to the post-op area. Belton was MAD. Maybe furious would be a better word. He had an IV in one foot and a oxygen monitor type thing around his toe on the other foot. He wanted them OFF. He was pulling at the oxygen monitor and fussing about it until they finally could take it off of him. He needed a breathing treatment and screamed through the whole thing. Matt and I took turns holding him and trading off. He would scream, "MAMA DADA!!!!". We have never seen him act so CRAZY ANGRY HYSTERICAL. The nurses were reassuring us that this was totally normal. They gave him a dose of pain medicine, just in case he was in pain. But, he had gotten a Caudal Block (basically an epidural for babies) so his bottom half was numb and he shouldn't have been in any pain. Apparently kids have a rough time coming out of anesthesia!

He finally (sort-of) calmed down when Matt was carrying him around in the halls and the nurse was giving me the post-op instructions for home. We got in the car and he calmed down even more. He spent most of the afternoon (except for when he was napping) like this!

By that evening though, Belton was sprinting around our apartment! He was waaaay more rambunctious than normal and just acting kind of crazy! I guess all of the drugs made him a bit wired. He slept through the night like everything was normal, even though he didn't get any pain medicine for 12 hours. He continued to have some bouts of obvious pain throughout the next 3-4 days. I am just so grateful that the pain didn't seem to be unbearable!

He really did great and we are so grateful for the good doctors and nurses who took care of him! I'm also grateful for the family and friends that brought us meals for a couple of days so that I could focus on taking care of our boy. I'm also thankful for the friends and family who visited with toys and books to try to help keep him happy when he couldn't do as much as normal.