Ptosis Surgery

On the weekend, J. and I decided that we would head into Toronto the night before Pea's surgery and stay overnight in a hotel. We came to this decision because the weather promised to be ugly today (freezing rain) and no one in their right mind ever wants to navigate the 401/404 on a Tuesday morning in freezing rain. Secondly, Sgt. Russell's funeral was today and thousands of people were expected to be in the vicinity of Sick Kids today.  My mom offered to stay the night at our house with Chick, so everything fell into place to allow us to travel to Toronto a little earlier.

Pea was excited to not only have us all to himself, but to have the run of a hotel room as well.  Here he is pretending to be asleep.  Oh, Pea, if only you slept as easily as you pretend to here.

After taking a tour of the hotel's facilities, we came back to our room to share some snacks before the dreaded, "No food after midnight" rule took effect.  Of course, the boys sat on MY bed and left all their crumbs behind.

The three of us before we called it a night.

Early the next morning (5:30am, to be exact) we woke Pea to give him a bottle of apple juice before the 6:00am cut-off of all liquids.  He gulped down the juice and we all proceeded to get ourselves organized for the hospital.

Arriving at Sick Kids by 7:00am, we were admitted and waited to be called by a nurse.  The waiting room had many toys and Pea had a great time manipulating all the items he'd not seen before.

About an hour after our arrival, we were called into a small exam room and asked a series of questions about Pea's health.  He was weighed (12.25kg/27lbs) and we were instructed to put him into a teeny tiny hospital gown.  How cute it he in his little gown?

I love this picture of our little Pea with downtown Toronto in the background. 

I knew I wanted to accompany Pea into the operating room and informed the anesthesiologists of my intent when they came to speak to us before the surgery.  I was given some fancy duds to wear for the OR.

Before I knew it, a nurse was escorting us to the OR and I was shocked at the number of people waiting there for my little Pea.  There must have been 15 people in the room.  As soon as we entered the OR, I sat Pea on the table and the staff began hooking him up to monitors.  We gently lowered Pea's head down and then a mask was put over his nose and mouth.  The anesthesiologist allowed me to smell the mist coming out and it smelled of strawberries.  Pea fought the mask and the anesthesia. The doctor commented on how strong he was and how much of a fighter he was.  I wanted to laugh out loud.  If they had this much trouble putting him to sleep with anesthesia, imagine my plight all these months!
I talked to Pea the entire time he was being put under and even after it looked as though he was asleep.

J. and I were told to go and get some breakfast as the surgery would take 60 - 90 minutes to complete.  So, we headed to Timmies where we downed our first cups of coffee of the day in record time.  By this time, both J. and I had massive headaches and needed Advil and coffee immediately.

We took our time heading back up to the OR waiting room, as we expected to still have a bit of a wait in store. Imagine our surprise when we arrived to see that Pea was already in recovery (there are big screens in the OR waiting room with the status of each patient in surgery).  Soon, the surgeon came out to tell us that the surgery had gone well, but that we wouldn't know just how successful it was for a couple of weeks (at least).  Once all the swelling goes down and the levator muscle has some time to re-work itself, we'll know more.

We waited another 20 minutes or so before being called in to be with Pea as he woke from the anesthesia.  As we approached Pea's recovery bed, we could hear him crying and I couldn't wash my hands quickly enough and get to him to hold him.  Usually once I cuddle Pea he stops crying immediately, but he wouldn't/couldn't calm down.  His cry was a different kind of cry than what we typically hear and I knew he was in pain.  I told the nurse that I suspected he was in pain and she quickly found a doctor to sign off on some morphine for Pea.  With one dose in, he was still quite agitated and within ten minutes she was back with a second dose.  Once the second dose was in, he quickly calmed and slept on my shoulder for 30 minutes or so.

I was aching to get Pea home and was told that the quickest way to achieve that was to wake him up and offer him something to drink.  If he could drink a little, we could go home.  I pulled out every trick in the book to get my boy to drink. I offered apple juice in a bottle, apple juice in a cup, water in a bottle, water in a cup, apple juice with a straw, and even a popsicle that the nurse offered.  The one thing he drank?  Water with a straw!  We could go home.

In the car on the way home, Pea drank seven ounces of apple juice, then fell asleep.  He slept all the way home, then continued to sleep for another three hours on my shoulder.  Tired little bug.

As of 7:00pm, he was out cold in his crib.  It's been a long day for this little trooper and when his patch comes off tomorrow, we'll have a better idea of what his eye looks like.  He's still the most beautiful boy I've ever known and always will be.

Tonight we are grateful to so many people.  We are grateful that my mom was here to take care of Chick (who had a great time playing with all of her toys without being bullied).  We are grateful for our friends and family who prayed for us and who sent positive energy our way.  We are grateful that we had a fabulous and caring surgeon taking care of Pea today.  We are grateful for the compassion and care we received from the nurses at the hospital.  We are grateful for the staff and volunteers at Sick Kids who made the day as painless as possible. 

Lastly, we are grateful for perspective.  Seeing the brave little souls at Sick Kids put everything into perspective for us today.  We are lucky to have two healthy and vibrant children.  So very lucky.