One more night at the hospital...
A quick update on Alex. He had surgery to repair an inguinal hernia today. Actually they repaired two.
On Wednesday last week during his bath I noticed a bulge on his left side that wasn't there on the right. Thursday we saw the pediatrician who said "Yes, its a hernia." And on Friday we met with the pediatric surgeon who said "How does Tuesday sound for surgery?"
So today we reported for duty at 6:45 AM. After he was weighed we met with the anesthesiologists and nurses and they took him into the OR at 7:50 AM. The surgery started by 8:30 and was done by 9:30. Its pretty amazing. They made a small incision in his belly button and used a camera to see what was going on. They found a hernia on both sides and so repaired both. Apparently, he just has small incisions on each side.
We saw him in recovery shortly there after. And boy was he upset! Too upset to eat. After calming him down we spent a little time there and then were taken up to the pediatric floor to his room. The next few hours were spent trying to keep him comfortable with pain medicine. This was the hard part for us. It's not easy to see your baby who never cries, cry and wimper without being able to tell you how he feels. Around 4PM he finally ate a substantial amount and he settled down a little more and then slept really well.
By the time he woke again around 8:00 PM he was a totally different kid. He was more alert, less fussy, and obviously having much less discomfort. He ate like a champ and seems to be mostly back to his old self. What a difference just a few hours makes.
Usually this procedure is an outpatient procedure. But because he was premature and his gestationally corrected age is only 2 weeks, he has to stay overnight for monitoring. He's doing great and we'll be home tomorrow.
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