The champ

My son is a champion.  His recovery has been absolutely wonderful.  He's not complaining too much, the first day, yes, but rightly so.  Before surgery, my heart broke a bit because he would not hold my hand going to the OR.  "Mommy I want to walk with the doctors because we are all wearing blue pajamas!"  He walked into the OR and exclaimed "WOW!  Look at all the cool stuff!"  I stayed until he fell asleep, which didn't look like sleep because he was laughing and his eyes were rolling, then kissed his little head and went to sit and watch the clock.  Hubby and I went to the cafeteria for some comfort food, CHEO cafeteria makes this amazing chocolate silk pie!  Mmm..breakfast pie.  When he woke up from surgery he immediately downed two popsicles (if they were handing out free popsicles, he was taking them!) and a glass of apple juice and was super excited when they offered him a DVD player to watch some Dora.  An hour later, we were out of there!  He told the nurse "Thank you!  I had so much fun today!"  Later in the day after the surgery he was jittery and could not focus, then slept like the dead from 7 pm on (yay!).  He had some blurry vision which he thought was hilarious..."Mommy, you have 4 noses!  I see two daddies!"  He went back to school yesterday and was super cooperative about not playing in the sand and not running/jumping too much.  He did some quiet activities outside with the EA and was never grumpy and barely shed a tear.  He's not loving the eye drops, but tolerates them because he gets that his eyes feel better after he has them.  He looks like he's gone a couple of rounds in the ring, but there are no bruises or bandages for that matter.  Surgery has come a long way in the last couple of decades.  It was silly to be so worried, but alas, I am his mother, it's my job to worry so he doesn't have to.  Not yet anyway.  Picture day is this Friday, he may be a little bloodshot, but hopefully they can do a little magic so it's not so noticeable.  If not, oh well, it is what it is!

Many many thanks to the wonderful Day Surgery Unit at CHEO.  What a fantastic and reassuring experience.  The docs were amazing.  Dr. O'Connor the Opthalmologist and Dr. Splinter the Anaesthetist.  The nurse who prepped him (Stephanie) for the OR did an amazing job.  They had a book with pictures of what it would look like and she explained to him exactly how it would work.  He was nervous about getting onto the table, but once he was settled, he was fine.  When the surgery was done, Dr. O. came into the waiting room sat down and got right down to the nitty gritty:  The surgery went well, J did great, and he's now breathing on his own and sleeping it off.  Exactly the information I wanted to have immediately.  I breathed my huge sigh of relief and thanked the stars and heavens and whoever that my heart was safe.  We are fortunate to live in this city with such an amazing hospital for children.  CHEO treated my son like he was part of the team, each person greeted him by name and interacted with him even if only briefly.  They treated him like he was the most important thing, just as they should.