Surgery

So Nate had his surgery last Thursday and he did great, of course. He did a bit better on the drive this time because we decided to stop in Twin Falls for a little break half way.  Plus, I brought pretty much every book we own :)

We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 the next morning so we were all a bit drowsy. His surgery was scheduled for 9:30 and was only supposed to be about an hour long. They said he'd probably have to stay for about an hour after the surgery and then we could get him in the car and head home before all of his pain medicine wore off. We were hoping to be back in Pocatello before dinnertime. Here's what actually happened...

The surgery that was before Nate's had some complications so they didn't come to get Nate until about 10:15. By then he was starving and exhausted and had just finally fallen asleep. We were sent to the waiting room to wait. By 12:30, I was starting to get a little bit worried. I knew that they would have come to tell us if anything major had happened but we had already been waiting twice as long as we thought. Finally at 1:15, the doctor came out to talk to us. She said there was still a lot of scar tissue in his belly from the NEC he had during his first week so it took a lot longer than she expected to get through all of it.  She said any kind of belly surgery he has in the future (which is hopefully none) is going to be more complicated because of that. Luckily she thought about that during his surgery last August and took out his appendix while she was in there. So that should be one less thing we would have to worry about happening down the road.

That afternoon was rough. He was starving and exhausted but couldn't do anything but cry. He was too tired to eat and too hungry to sleep so it took a few hours to get him content enough to be able to get in the car. Finally at about 6:30, his belly was full, he had another dose of some good pain medication kicking in, and we left Boise. Luckily, he slept the whole way home.

He has recovered well. The first day he slept most of the day but after that, he pretty much went back to normal. The hardest part has been the activity restriction. He has felt pretty good but wasn't allowed to bathe or jump in his jumper all week, which are his 2 favorite activities. He's been pretty bored but physically, he's doing great!