Operation Day

Wow. I haven't been really good about keeping up with the blog, probably because I am so relieved that we are almost finished with all of the casts that I feel that I can start to relax... even though we will still be doing foot related things until Little Joe is 2 years old.

Anyways to the day of the surgery. I had to set my alarm to wake up and nurse little Joe until 8:30am. He was no allowed to eat after 8:30am and to be honest I knew that would be the only thing I worried about, him not being allowed to eat. Joe had to go in for his job interview that morning so he was gone. After little Joe had his food we put him in the bath to soak his casts because I had got permission to remove them myself. It was so easy and I really enjoyed doing it. He was so smiley and happy, it made me feel bad that he was going to be in casts for 3 weeks after he had this surgery.

We got ready and he was asleep for most of the morning. Joe got back from his interview right before I was suppose to leave which was fortunate because I didn't want to have to go to the hospital myself. We got to the hospital, got checked in and then had to wait.

Being in the waiting room before little boys surgery was one of the hardest things I had to do. I am going to  try and explain this without sounding dumb. I wanted to cry, except not for my son. The thing was that I had a completely healthy son, even if medicine was not as advanced as it was my son would still have a relatively normal life, I would keep stretching his feet, I would strap his feet or do something to help him use his feet as best I could. In other words I have not ever been worried about the way my sons feet would affect his life, however while in the waiting room I saw a little girl with no feet. I saw a little boy that was being feed through tubes in his belly and his father looked like he hadn't slept in years. I heard mothers taking to nurses like they were old friends, they knew where everything was, they knew how to get food, where to get extra blankets and who was in which room. I realized that to some of the parents in that waiting room the hospital was second nature. It was a second home, it was sleepless nights and wondering how your child would cope in the world, would they date, would they make it to another birthday. And this is why I wanted to cry because I felt so grateful to my Heavenly Father for my son and I prayed and still pray for all those I saw in the waiting room that day.

When son was to be taken in he was so hungry and he was screaming, that was not nice, seeing your son being taken into surgery and screaming his lungs out. We went and grabbed a bite to eat and then came back to wait. About 5 minutes after we got back they came to get his. He was out of surgery. He looked so gorgeous and I gave him so many kisses. He was pretty groggy and I feed him straight away. We stayed in the hospital for about 4 hours afterward to make sure their were no reactions to the anesthetic and that his feet didn't turn purple. It was good to get home but man his casts were so heavy. So so heavy.