Gavin's surgery

So, back in June of 2012, Brandon & I were bathing Gavin & Connor (late Saturday night, we threw them in together and washed them as quickly as we could), when I looked up and saw a funny lump in Gavin's groin area.  I asked Brandon if that was normal, and after looking and poking a bit, we decided that he had a hernia.

So, we got a recommendation for a dr. from a friend, (Dr. David Harker) and scheduled an appointment with him.  The hernia wasn't bothering Gavin as far as being painful.  It was more sensitive to the touch than actually hurting.  So, we talked to the dr. and asked if we could just wait until September when our new insurance plan rolled around.  (We knew that Scottie would be having surgery, and wanted to have G's surgery during the same insurance period.)

Dr. Harker said that as long as it wasn't hurting him, we could wait if we wanted.  He said there would be a chance that something could happen, and he could all of a sudden be in a ton of pain, and if that happened, to give him a call, and he'd get us in ASAP.  So, we shook his hand, held our breath, and waited until September.

September came with no incidents as far as the hernia.  We scheduled an appointment with Dr. Harker for him to take another look at the hernia and schedule a surgery date.  We scheduled the appointment for Friday, the 21st of September.  We asked Toady the night before if he wanted me or Brandon to go up to the hospital with him, and he chose his dad.

The next morning, Toady & Dad got up early and headed to the hospital.  While I stayed home to get the other boys off to school, and drop a Bear off at my sister-in-law's house.  And, can I just say, I was such a nervous wreck!  I don't think we'll let the kids have the choice again - I'll always be the one to go up to the hospital with them.

Brandon texted me several times to let me know that they'd been checked in, changed, met with the dr. and that he was headed into surgery.  It wasn't a long surgery, and I was worried that I wasn't going to get to his room before he was finished with the surgery, but I got to the hospital and to his room about ten minutes before he was brought back.  The dr. had already come in and talked with Brandon and said that all went well.  When he was brought into his room, I immediately climbed into bed with him and just held him.  I might have even cried a little.

Watching a movie while he wakes up

Laying with a Mom!  :)

The nurses brought in a movie for us while he woke up fully from surgery, and then asked him to get up and walk around before they'd let us go home.  He was really nervous about walking because he knew it would hurt and that he'd be dizzy, but we talked him into getting out of bed and walking around for a bit.  Once he did that, our nurse brought in the prize chest, let us change him, and go home.

He ended up choosing a sticky hand/frog/crab something, and was most disappointed when it broke later that day.  He kept asking us to take him back up to the hospital to exchange it for a new one.  :(

He rested on the couch with an ice pack on his incision site for most of the rest of the day, while we kept him dosed up on his Lortab.  His mood was great, and he acted almost like his normal self

Doesn't look like he had surgery at all, does it?

Whatcha' lookin' at, Mom?

He ended up going to bed at 8:00 that night, completely exhausted.  Brandon stayed up and gave him his medicine at midnight so that I could go to bed at 10:00 with a Bear.  (During the past several months, Connor has had a really hard time with sleeping at night.  He would get up multiple times at night - like every two hours - so nights were rough for us.)  I got up at 3:00 in the morning to give him his Lortab, and he hopped right out of bed to take it, and then slept soundly until the morning.

The next day, Saturday, we kept him on Ibuprofen all day instead of the Lortab, and he did great.  Dr. Harker said to just let him choose the pace.  Unlike adults, if a child does something that hurts, they'll stop doing it.  He was gently jumping on the trampoline that afternoon, and was pretty much back to his normal self by Monday.  He came home from school a bit tired, but overall was feeling pretty good.

The bandage took about a week or two to fall off, and we'd clip the tape every so often when it would pull away from his skin.  But, everything healed well, and he now has a scar that he's proud of that is quite similar to Scottie's.  Grateful for current medicine that allows us to do things like this!