We were to be at the hospital at 7:00 in the morning. We were there about 6:40. Usually when we go to the doctors office early we get in early. Not so at the hospital. We waited until about 8:30 to get called back. With a very Hungary baby, this is a hard feat. He last ate at 8 the night before. He did really good for a baby who hadn't eaten. We get called back and go into the holding area that holds 4 patients in their beds. This is where you meet the nurses, anesthesiologist, and the doctor so everyone can explain what it is they are about to do to your child, none of which sound appealing. They do have some things that sound kinda interesting, like doing an epidural. It is different than one for a woman in labor. There is a soft tissue spot on the back of a baby that will turn to bone. This spot can be used to add some medicine and numb the area for 6 to 8 hours. They do a little test to make sure there is no blood vessels close to this, since we do not want it getting into the blood stream.
When they took him back we went to the waiting room. The hospital has a really neat feature. When someone is in surgery they have a flat screen tv that scrolls all the patients names on there and the progress, like checked in, in operating room, moved to recovery, and released home. Of course Zacks name was not on this after we came back from the holding area.
They do give updates by phone. She called 1 hour and 15 minutes into the surgery to tell us he was doing well and they should be done in about 15 more minutes. There is a staff person in the waiting room that has all the updates and gets all the calls and looks for whoever is needed. She was very resourceful. After about 20 minutes after the call she told us to go to a consultation room to meet with the doctor.
We sat there for what seemed like forever, and it smelt like pee. I think they needed to clean it. He came in and told us what he had done and that he did really good with the antestic. What they did was straighten his penis, did the circusim and used the skin to make a new tube for him to pee out of. They cut all the way around the top of his pee pee and down the bottom side all the way to the base. They used disolving stitches. The only problem that may arise is if it should sping a leak along the bottom of his penis where the stitches were. We were sent back to the waiting room to wait until he wakes up so we can see him.
They finally called us back there. They have some people that escort you back to where they are. He was awake and holding two bottles of apple juice. He only drinks about 4oz. of apple juice a day. The bottles were 4oz each and he had already had one before the two he was holding. We stayed here about 30 minutes.
We then went back to the holding area but to a private room. I held him until he was done eating and he took small cat naps. I then gave him to Mikie and let the two of them sit in the rocker. Zack threw up all over the place. We get the nurse and get cleaned up. Then he goes to sleep. He slept for like an hour and a half. Finally the nurse comes back to put his iv back in because he has not been drinking. He finally wakes up and we feed him a bottle of formula this time and he was so hungary. We changed his diaper. He had two diapers on, the one on the bottom has a hole cut in it so his pee pee can stick threw it. He has his pee pee all wrapped up like a freaking Christmas present with a tube sticking out of it that allows the pee to go to the outside diaper. He also had more blood than the nurse expected to see so she called for the doctor to look at it. The doctors helper or maybe intern came to look at it and started pulling out clots. Zack was very calm during this. He still had the epidural so he was kicked back and didn't care what was going on. She pulled out alot and then said it should not bleed anymore.
Any child that has the stint (baby sized catheter) put in has to stay at least 2 hours after surgery. With his throwing up and the bleeding we had to stay a lot longer. His epidural started wearing off about 6 hours after his surgery. To say he was fussy is a understatement. He screamed and screamed, finally the nurse asked the doc for some pain killers. While we were waiting for the medicine we were walking him up and down the hallways. It seemed to help a little bit. While I was walking him down the hall we found some ride on toys. I put him in one and pushed him around. He really enjoyed it. The intern came back to check on his bleeding. It was still bleeding some. She called for the doctor and he told her to wrap it with gauze to keep it tight. While she was in the process of doing this the doctor came in to help with it. Zack was screaming and moving around. He was not a happy guy.
When the medicine finally came he did not want to take it but we could tell it made him fell better and I think he went back to sleep. Of course with all the crying I'm sure he was wore out. They finally let us go home about 4:00. We packed up in the car and headed for our pharmacy to fill his meds. We were gonna need them.
