Mar 25
Everyone,
This week for my friend Lolli‘s Give Me Your Best Shot meme, I thought I’d do the best shot that I took on my little camera. In total, I think I have 3 cameras. My nice big one, my old point and shoot (which groans sadly whenever you turn it on) and my little underwater camera. I just keep the little underwater camera in my coat pocket and take pictures when I can. It’s also the main camera I use in the summer near water and in the winter near snow. I like it. It’s also the camera I take all the videos on until I save up for a flip camera (I’ve gotten almost 100 dollars at Amazon. For free! Earned by doing normal internet searches from Swagbucks. Sign up and you and I will both benefit!)
Now, I maybe upload the pictures on there once a month unless there’s a video I want to show off. This past download included a few pictures I took of Pirate in the hospital waiting room (before we went to the triage of eternal waiting) and a video of him playing. It also included this picture:
Here is my brave boy about half an hour after his surgery. He still looks a little drugged. But he was smiling just a little bit. Notice his beloved blanket (which had to be washed today, the horror!) and his cute green pjs for St. Patrick’s day.
Any cool pictures you’ve done this week? Link up!
Safire
Safiregive me your best shot, Pirate's Surgery
Mar 19
Everyone,
Today I have another picture from the hospital. Okay, I have 2 that are really good.
This week’s challenge at Give Me your Best Shot is Straight Out of the Camera. These two pictures of Pirate at the hospital are a little dark, but they are straight out of the camera.
I wanted to put up a picture of his cute little gap in the back of his little gown but thought better of it. (Why is it cute on a 2 year old and horrible on adults?!)
He’s doing okay today. His left side is a maze of big purple bruises. He keeps sitting down suddenly and grabbing his left knee/leg and crying at random moments. Sadly, that has not stopped him from climbing. Just this morning I found him in the bathroom sink. As in, his whole body is in the sink and he is incredibly pleased with himself. Yesterday he climbed up on top of the computer desk in my living room and broke one of my figurines that was on a shelf above the desk.
I am so happy that spring is almost here and summer is not far behind. These kids need to get out of the house and climb on something legal!
Safire
Safiredouble trouble, GMYBS, Pirate's Surgery
Mar 18
Everyone,
After unsuccessfully keeping him down yesterday and this morning, I think he woke up from his nap sore. He was cross. He only wanted Mommy. So we all sat and watched movies this afternoon and he peed all over me. (His diaper is worn looser because of where the incision is…and it’s prone to leaking. He had to have 3 outfits today because of it!)
I’ve been very on top of the whole pain medication thing. I can tell when we’re getting close to the next dose though. He starts to get really cranky, cries a lot, and big circles show up under his eyes. Poor baby! I hope that he starts to feel really better soon because I’m really hurting to see him hurting.
This morning I went to get them out of their cribs and he said, “Uh-oh!” So I went over expecting to see something (not sure what now) and he looks up at me and said, “ow!” and started to bawl. It was so heart wrenching. I swooped him up (soggy pjs and all) and just held him and rocked until he stopped crying.
This also put out Professor who is used to spending all morning in my arms and he was cross and cranky with me too. And Butterfly was so sweet this morning petting Pirate’s head and getting him toys. But the sweetness wore off and by the evening she was a whining mess. I know she just wants attention. They all do. But sadly, Pirate needs me the most. Right now, the rest will have to deal.
I took Professor to the store with me this evening after Juice got home. What a good little boy he is! I guess I never realized how well behaved he is for me. He just stays really close, follows me where ever I go, and is happy not to touch things. It’s so funny to me that I’m JUST noticing this with him. I guess when I go out I’m so worried about keeping everyone in line, I didn’t realize that I didn’t need to keep him in line. A fun discovery.
The last of our huge snow pile melted today. The crocuses are blooming and the grass is greening up. It won’t be long till all the trees are in bloom and spring will be here. It’s been over 70 degrees the last few days. So beautiful! I’m hoping that we’ll make it to see the cherry blossoms in full bloom this year.
Safire
SafireButterfly, Pirate, Pirate's Surgery, Professor, spring
Mar 17
Everyone,
Today is St. Patrick’s day. And my mom’s birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! And my aunt’s birthday! Happy Birthday Aunt! (March is a big birthday month for us.)
Everyone is wearing green today except for Pirate. He may be feeling a little green, but he’s dashing in his little blue gown.
Today is the day of his surgery. He has a hydrocele, which is basically fluid moving from his body to his testicle area. That’s no good. So off we went to fix it.
Since it is a surgery, he wasn’t able to eat or drink anything starting the night before. His surgery was scheduled at 9:30am so at 8:30am, we show up as requested.
Then we spent an HOUR in the waiting room. He was a jem. They had a few toys to play with. Those little wooden roller coaster things are a lot of fun if you have nothing else to do! He also got a hospital bracelet that he kept trying to pull off. Finally, close to the 50 minute mark, I pulled out my ipod and played some kid movie for him. Of course, I forgot my headphones in the car so it was a silent movie.
Around 9:30 am, they took us back into the triage area and asked me a ton of questions. They gave him that adorable gown and then we waited for the doctor. And waited. And waited. He was a doll again. I put Cars on the ipod for him and he carried it around or sat in my lap and snuggled. He wasn’t interested in any books. His thumb was in his mouth constantly. Poor hungry kid hasn’t eaten in over 12 hours at this point.
The nurse came back in and chatted with us for awhile. Apparently the surgery before us was more complicated than expected. They put the next surgery in the triage room next to us.
Around 10:45 am, we finally started seeing people. The anaesthesiologist talked to me about what they were going to do. He showed me the mask. He said they would put in some kind of block in his tail bone. It’s like an epidural. He won’t be able to feel his legs really well.
The doctor’s associate came in to check him. Huh, no sign of that hydrocele or a bulging sack. He went back to confer with the doctor. They had me gown up and he walked right into the OR. As I put him on the table, he just hung onto my hand so tight. He was not scared. I was! The doctor talked to me about how often I notice the bulging (every day) and when it’s the biggest. I was able to hand him my tracker sheet about when I noticed it and how often. Boy am I glad I wrote that down! He nodded, gave it to the nurses and said, “Prep him.”
Pirate did not cry as they held the mask over his face. He just stared into my eyes and then drifted off. So peaceful. What a mellow boy we have. We walked into the OR around 11 am.
I’ll admit, it was hard to leave the OR and his little limp body on the table. He looked SO tiny as they all started to work around him and they took me out of the room.
Now it’s 11:45 and I am sitting in the waiting room listening to other kids run up and down the hall.
*********
I wrote the above at the hospital center. Now we are home. The surgery went well. There was a small hydrocele and they closed that off. There was also a small start of a hernia and they fixed that right up. They also cleaned out excess fluid and sewed him back up. Seriously, took maybe half an hour. They brought him out to recovery and he was already awake when I got there.
He was not happy with me though and didn’t want to be touched or looked at. I went and made our follow up appointment and left him with his nurse. Everyone was super nice at the hospital and really helped out.
Once I got back to the recovery room, he was ready to see me and be picked up. They gave him some kind of spinal block similar to an epidural so he couldn’t move his legs. He just lay limp in my arms and sucked his thumb and held onto his blanket. (They even made note of which thumb he sucks and didn’t put any IVs on it.) About 10 minutes later, the nurse offered him some juice. He downed it. Then she gave him a Popsicle. That was gone in a matter of minutes. She gave me all of our discharge instructions and had me look at his incision. It’s only about as long as my pinkie. They put stitches on the inside (?!) that will dissolve so no worries about him picking at them. They also put some sort of glue on the outside that will dissolve in about 2 days.
He got another Popsicle and a bunch of stickers and off we went. He was very content to have his Popsicle and get the other kids who were at Lolli’s house for the morning. When they got into the car with him, Butterfly said, “I haven’t seen you in a long time! I missed you!” and gave him a big hug. Aww! Professor also pointed, babbled a lot, patted his leg, and smiled. It could be because he still had a Popsicle but I’m choosing to believe that it was because he missed him too.
He took a great nap at home, and has been bouncing off the walls ever since. The doctor told me to restrict his activity for the next 2 days. In the 2 hours he was up, I was ready to tear my hair out and he was pretty frustrated too. Tomorrow and Friday are going to be fun, I can tell.
Safire
SafirePirate, Pirate's Surgery
