Tough Cookie

Tony had surgery on Wednesday to repair his bilateral inguinal hernias (very common in premature boys) and was a great patient! He did really well and only cried in recovery.

We got to CHOC bright and early with Alex and both grandmas in tow. I'd mentally rehearsed the entire timeline a million times and had tried to think of every possible scenario. I was prepared for everything except a Code Red (fire), but luckily it was in a completely different area and I didn't have to go barreling into the OR to grab Tony. ;)

They were able to move his surgery up about half an hour so he didn't have to go the full 4 hours without eating. This was an added element that kept our little patient patiently waiting. All of the nurses were great and it was cute watching them show off "their" twins to the rest of the staff in the Short Stay Unit.

Perhaps because of our entourage, or just because they're cool like that, they let us stay in (the slightly larger than the others) patient prep room, instead of waiting in the waiting room. This gave us a quiet place to feed and entertain Alex (who did really well all day despite being out of his element and being totally off schedule) and a TV we could control.

When Striker and I were allowed back to see Tony in recovery, he started crying, so they gave him an extra shot of pain meds which knocked him out for THREE hours. That means that we sat there staring at him and STARVING for 3 hours when we'd probably had been out of there in an hour without that shot. Now don't get me wrong, if Tony was in pain, I want him to be comfortable as quickly as possible. In hindsight, we think he was just pissed off because they'd tried to feed him something in a bottle (which he absolutely WON'T take), wouldn't let us stand up and hold him, and couldn't wiggle freely with all the wires stuck to him, BUT better to err on the side of comfort.
Anyhow we were starving by noon, so Striker went to the gift shop to find some snacks to hold us over, so we wouldn't start gnawing on Alex's extremities.

Tony FINALLY woke up and ate a little after 1 and we were home by 3 after driving thru Duke's Burgers and shoving food down our throats. I vaguely recall ordering and swallowing a Double Cheeseburger.

I gave him Tylenol as soon as we got home and for 24 hours after, but I don't think he really needed it. He's been smiling and wiggling since we got home. Yesterday he woke up with that smile on his face and continued trying to roll over. Alex had a tougher time getting back into the routine, but he was very worried about his little brother. ;)