The night before the fusion. They love each other so much. His little sissy, only just six, would do anything to help him and take all this away.
Pure love
We decorated for Christmas, A. because everyone should B. because it thanksgiving is late and there's not a lot of time and C. because we don't know how long we will be in the hospital and I don't want to have to worry about that amongst everything else.
This is the easiest sock Everett has had to put on, silly boy!
Clara's favorite ornament, thanks Dode! It's in every picture she draws for xmas now.
Silly boy, morning of surgery. I wish I could explain things to him sometimes, and in moments like these I'm glad he doesn't understand what's to come.
Daddy stayed home to take Clara to school to keep things as normal for her as we could. She was sad mommy wasn't going to be there when she woke up, we had to be at the hospital by 6.
Lisa showed up to hang for the day. I was relieved Kristin was at school with Clara, just in case she needed anything. My people really have me covered down here!
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, WHOA dance
night before pics with daddy
D day :( My heart is breaking for this little boy, yet so excited to get this done with. This decision and surgery has been weighing heavy on my heart for a long time now.
More pics with dad, of course my pics are out of order
Andre came around 10, right after I took him back. We were there at 6 and I saw all doctors and the anesthesiologist was hesitant to do surgery with his cough. I knew this would be an issue and it made me so nervous. I was nervous we would have to cancel and I'd have to wait again to get this over with and I was nervous I'd be putting him in harms way if he went into surgery with a cough. ENT and our neurosurgeon Dr. Rodriguez were fine with moving forward. Michelle his amazing PT got permission to go into the OR with him. I handed Everett off to her at 9:45. The hardest part, letting him go and all the fears flood me immediately. ENT ended up taking his tubes out instead of fixing the left tube because holes were being made in his ear drum which is common, I guess. That was the first hour and a half he was back there. She wasn't very concerned, she isn't our typical ENT, since our usual doctor was already doing surgery somewhere else that day she sent a colleague. I was thankful they did this since they normally do not, but having another procedure would suck, killing two birds with one stone was great. The prep for his surgery was almost two hours I believe. Michelle kept me in the loop the whole time, we texted only a little, but it was so nice having her in there knowing she was standing over him watching it all. I didn't want to text her and bother her so for the most part I waited to hear from her. I think Dr. Rodriguez came out around 3-4 to tell me everything went perfect and that it would be a bit before I could see him. It was a while and that last hour or however long it was, I couldn't help but pace at that point. Mimi had joined us and Kristin had taken Clara from school to let Ellie out.
We finally got to see him, as you can see in the pic below. He was so agitated which he has never been after a surgery, I hate seeing him so mad, confused and uncomfortable. Michelle was there with him this entire day, starving!!!!!!!!!!! I got to pick him right up and that helped. It took me back to NICU days and I couldn't believe I was able to touch him, flashbacks in hospitals are terrible. I sang to him and he was very disoriented and out of it. I crawled right in bed with him and they took us to his room. It was easy to calm him, once he woke upset and heard my voice he would calm. He still had his cough but surprising enough it was gone by the time we left the hospital.
We finally got to see him, as you can see in the pic below. He was so agitated which he has never been after a surgery, I hate seeing him so mad, confused and uncomfortable. Michelle was there with him this entire day, starving!!!!!!!!!!! I got to pick him right up and that helped. It took me back to NICU days and I couldn't believe I was able to touch him, flashbacks in hospitals are terrible. I sang to him and he was very disoriented and out of it. I crawled right in bed with him and they took us to his room. It was easy to calm him, once he woke upset and heard my voice he would calm. He still had his cough but surprising enough it was gone by the time we left the hospital.
I can't stand to see his incision, but I know they did a great job. They took the time to use glue below the hairline to help with scarring. I don't even care at this point, but I'm sure one day when the bone is healed and he is healthy and safe I'll be thankful for those little things.
I always feel like he is a baby, then I pick him up and he is heavy and long. He had "no no's" on his arms which prevent him from touching his head. He wouldn't have, but I wanted them on to keep his lines in place. I told the nurse about the twelve IVs he had when his tonsils were removed and she was so kind and placed his lines in his forearms where they stay best. Each nurse tried to take the braces off and I wouldn't stand for it. Having to have him be poked after surgery would have been terrible. One line did get pulled, it was my fault when I was moving him around on the bed. Thank goodness the nurse was so understanding before surgery and placed two lines for a backup. His wrist had an arterial line just in case he needed an emergency transfusion, thankfully he didn't and they removed that line before I even saw him. It bruised up pretty bad. :(
It felt so good to have him back in my arms again.
He was passed out face down snoring. I felt bad smiling but Andre showed me what I looked like in the first take, so I had to put a smile on my face.
Before surgery
The waiting crew. we were in the dark away from where we were supposed to wait bc it was full, everyone kept asking us if we wanted the light on and none of us did thankfully. this is one of the prep rooms in pre op
My poor boy, thankfully Andre could handle taking pics so we can look back on this and show him how strong he was/is. He is my hero.
I'm happy we got his oxygen off, I think it took a day, I don't even remember everything is always such a blur. He still needed it when he was sleeping but it was okay to just put a mask by his face because this boy will NOT tolerate a nasal canula, he needed air because of the heavy meds.
Crammed in this hospital bed together, the best snuggles I've ever gotten is the only bonus from this crappy painful mess
If I could just take it all away.
daddy snuggles
Aunt Leesie makes him look huge, or he makes her look smaller, I'm not sure which. I was so thankful she stayed a while after, I had to pee and she gave me a nice break to hydrate and pee. Michelle even ate and came back to check on him before she left. I am surrounded by angels!
Andre always gets a view pic, st pete is an amazing place to live with these doctors, therapists and views in our backyard.
