Surgery Day for Justin

Most of you are probably unaware that Justin has been having some urology problems.  When it first began, I assumed he just had similar problems to what Katelynn has.  We had been told years ago that the boys could have some of the same issues as she does since it is hereditary.  I kept my eye on him, but from experience knew that even though he wasn't fully emptying his bladder, it wasn't a huge issue unless he began having accidents or developed an infection.  Shortly before school started, he started using the bathroom six to eight times an hour.  He never had accident, but I knew at that point,  it was time to take him to the urologist.  To my surprise, his issues were in no way related to his big sister's.  He was diagnosed with a "boy" problem:  meatal stenosis.  The condition exhibits some of the same complications Katelynn has (not fully emptying the bladder), but the good (and bad) news was that it could be surgically repaired.  I was very excited that it is not a condition he would have to live through for years, but the mommy side of me couldn't get passed the fear of anesthesia.  He had never been put under before, and with his cardiology condition of VSD, I was scared.  I, of course, couldn't express my fears to him and with Justin's fear of changes and new things anyway, I knew I had to stay strong for him.

I was pretty proud of Justin.  He got a little scared a few days before and started expressing his fears at bedtime, but for the most part he was doing a really good job of not stressing about it.  We spent a lot of time talking to him about what to expect and making a big deal about how lucky he was going to be to eat all the popsicles he wanted after surgery. 

The morning of surgery he stayed strong until they brought us back to the preoperative area and then the tears began.  The surgery center staff did their best to make him comfortable.  They drew his name on the sheets with crayon (Grandpa Carney drew the car for him.) and offered to let him draw anything he wanted, they let him watch DVD's, gave him cars, brought his surgical mask for him to decorate.... but all he wanted to do was be held.  My poor baby was so scared and truth be told, so was I.

 

 

We managed to have a surgery day where the surgeon ended up getting a complicated case and was running really far behind.  We sat in preop for over three hours.  It was a very LONG wait.  When it was finally time to give Justin his versed and take him back to the OR, he didn't want to take the medication.  It took a lot of convincing to get him to take it.  Once he took it, he was finally much more calm and they were able to wheel him away from me without him screaming and crying.

 

The entire surgery took less than ten minutes.  Thank goodness.  It didn't take him very long to come out of the anesthesia either, and then I was able to breath much easier knowing that was done.  Justin was in really good spirits afterwards and was already eating a popsicle when they brought me back to the postoperative room.  Daddy wasn't able to be home for his surgery so we took this picture when it was all over and we were ready to go home so he knew that Justin was doing well:

 

 

I am not going to lie.  What I SHOULD have been fearing instead of the surgery was the healing.  It was a VERY LONG few days with my stubborn little boy.  He was up all the first night fighting going to the bathroom and fighting taking the pain medications.  It's all about the unknown for him.  Once we were able to get him to realize that going potty wouldn't hurt too much, then he would go but it took all night to get to that point.  Any new thing was an obstacle.  Finally today (3 days later), he is back to school and fingers crossed we are going to be able to put this behind us! 

 

For all of you that did know about this, thank you for all the prayers.  We needed them and are so thankful that Justin's surgery was successful and he is healing well!