You know, no matter how much you gear up, there is just no preparation sufficient to watch your children go through surgery. There is nothing worse than watching your sweet child go limp prior to being wheeled away from you, knowing full well the pain they will be incurring. Christian's surgery was on Monday. As parents, I think Monday might have been one of the hardest days. Midway through the surgery we got a call in the surgical waiting room...on the RED phone...which rarely means good stuff. Gavin had just run down to the cafeteria to get some much needed lunch...so I answered the call. It was Christian's doctor calling to inform us that the cholesteotoma was back and worse than before. He went on to share that it would be "unsafe" to close up his ear in the same fashion he had done in the prior surgery. With such an aggressive form of this ear problem, he was going to have to do a more radical ear surgery than last time and certainly MUCH more than we had anticipated. Dr. Boston was as shocked as we were that it had come back and that it had now started to extend down his eustation tube and toward his brain. I absorbed the information and then my pregnancy hormones...or maybe its just a mom with crazy worry...kicked in and I bawled. I was trying to imagine the new ear, the dissappointment and the prolonged pain and recovery. Gavin and I both had our moments of...let's call them a humbling moment and a reality check of God's will.
I stayed at the hospital until we were able to get Christian comfortable. It took a while to get him out of the anesthesia funk and his pain under control. Then I had to leave to come back to Corpus to take care of Shane and things here. Gavin and Christian had to stay the night in the Pediatric ward for observation because of the increased depth of surgery. Shane and I drove back up to San Antonio once more yesterday morning to pick them up. And then we made a not-so-comfortable trip home with Christian. Its amazing how bumpy the roads become all of a sudden.
So...here we are...Christian is resting on the couch vegging to some shows. He is relatively fine as long as his pain is controlled. He is one of the sweetest little men I know. He takes this all in stride. And he just amazes me at his quiet strength. Gavin is back to work this afternoon...Booo!
We will be taking weekly trips to San Antonio for checks on the healing of all of the ear openings, skin grafts, etc that were done.
Ultimately, we feel really blessed...that the Dr. in SA has been so competent and so kind to us and to Christian. He really has gone above and beyond what he could and should do. Certainly compared to the awful ENT guy we had here in Corpus initially...Dr. Boston is heaven sent. We also feel blessed that we were encouraged to go in for this repeat surgery. Who knows what WOULD HAVE happened...but I believe that Christian was protected from further damage and possible bigger issues in finding this sooner than later. For these blessings, we are so grateful. To be honest, we did have frustrated expectations of what this surgery was going to be....but certainly we see the wisdom in what it needed to be.
We were looking at some old pics and I found this one. I took it in a little shop in the Washington mall in DC....I remember being so SHOCKED at how politically incorrect this was...and in our nation's capital where everyone seems so worried about equality and proper verbage. To his credit, the owner of the shop was obviously of foreign decent so perhaps his heart was in the right place. I remember being so shocked that someone really put that out by their register...I had to have a picture. People just wouldn't believe me!
Back to mid March. The 16th Christian had ear surgery...I only got 2 pics because my camera wasn't charged. He was being hilarious before the surgery...cracking us and all the nurses up. I wish I would have had it on camera. And certainly when they gave me some sweet meds to "relax" him for the surgery...he started getting really loopy.
We had the surgery then went up a week later for the follow-up...which I already wrote about...but have a few pics for...
Then last weekend...Christian had his 1st baseball game of the season...which despite his ENT doc being leary, he still played...and he played fabulously...he got a gazillion outs in the pitcher position....and hit his 1st in field home run and pulled in 2 more runs! He had opening ceremonies for Bball, baseball pics, a birthday party and his first piano recital all last Saturday.
2) Today we had an ultrasound here in Corpus....to determine a fetal heartbeat (yes...there is ONE). And it was there!!! Beating very well at 137 bpm!!!!! Gavin and I got to hear it and see it...and its all so real now. We're so thrilled I could cry (happy tears, of course~)
With Spring Break right around the corner...Christian may be the only kid around you will find that is dreading the week off of school. The 1st day of the break, March 16th, he is having repeat ear surgery. We knew this was coming when we were told he initially needed ear surgery. So, it comes as no surprise. But, also having gone through one surgery all ready, Christian is all too keenly aware of what it is like...and the recovery involved. We are certainly hoping that they will go in there to find little/no growth reforming. We also hope that the doctor might be able to use some cartilidge to reform some of the "bones" that were initially removed...and in the meantime perhaps restore a little bit of his conductive hearing. And although we knew it was coming...we did not anticipate that we would a) selling/sold our home and moving out b)pregnant c)have a son in such a pivital role on his baseball team. All great things, just making our lives just a little more interesting than they all ready are.