Surgery Day (February 23)

Well today was Silas' big day.  Everything went fine and he is doing great. 

I've known that his surgery was going to be today but I didn't find out what time it was going to be at until 6 p.m. last night.  The doctor called and we had a pre-op appointment by phone, since I was unable to be in St. Louis.  (Luckily, I am feeling much better and am not sick anymore.)  He said that he decided to put Silas first this morning and that his surgery would be at 7:30 a.m. and that we would need to be here at 7:00.  Then I talked to the nurse after that and she said that we really needed to be here by 6:30 a.m. in order to do the paperwork.  Yikes!  That meant we had to leave the house by 4:00 a.m. this morning, which in turn meant that we had to wake up at 3:30 a.m.  Double yikes!  Jason and I rolled out of bed though and hit the road at 4:06 a.m.  Our drive over to St. Louis in the dark was very reminiscent of our drive in the early morning hours of December 11th - cold, dark, and not much traffic.

We arrived at Mercy Hospital at 6:20 a.m., and went in to see Silas.  He looked huge!!  Oh my lands, I hadn't seen my boy in a week and I thought he looked way way waaayyy bigger!  That is a good thing but it was a weird feeling at the same time.  I mean this is my son and I barely recognized him.  The nurses were in his room preparing him for transport down to the OR.  They brought in a smaller bed and put him in that for the long ride.  The ride was pretty bumpy for him but I think he liked it.  Some of our favorite nurses were helping today - Jen (the night nurse), Jenn (the day nurse), Nikki, and Karen.  They are all very sweet ladies and they love Silas.

First we went to a pre-op waiting room where we sat and waited on our surgeon, Dr. Caln.  He is a very nice man, probably in his forties.  He has young kids at home and I believe that he truly cares about Silas.  While we waited, I got to hold Silas for the first time in eight days.  I had missed him so much!  The poor guy hadn't been fed all night though because of the surgery and he could smell my milk the minute I walked into the room I think.  He really wanted me to feed him and I couldn't.  I felt like I was torturing him - "Smell this food, honey.  Doesn't it smell good?  Ah, too bad you can't have any."  Oh well, I wasn't able to hold him too long and the surgeon came in, went over everything, answered questions, and the team of nurses, anasthesiologists, respiratory techs, etc all whisked him away.

Jason and I went into a large waiting room for inpatient surgery where Jason proceeded to fall asleep in a recliner and then break said recliner.  The group of ladies sitting next to us got a big kick out of that.  That recliner is probably still reclined and may never go back to an upright position again.  The nurse called us on the cell phone while we were waiting and told us that they were starting.  They didn't have to put Silas under and I was happy about that.  Instead they used a caudal block, which is a lot like an epidural.  He received a shot in his back which blocked the pain and he was numb from his waist down.  This took a while to go into effect so they didn't actually start on the surgery until 8:07 a.m.  About an hour later, it was all finished and the doctor met with us in a private room.  Oh, I forgot to say that the doctor asked us if he could pray with us before they took Silas back in the operating room.  We all had a prayer right before the surgery and I thought that was so nice.  Anyway, so the doctor met with us and said that everything went very well.  Silas had two hernias and they fixed both of them.  I had also requested that they go ahead and do his circumcision while he was numb.  So they did that as well.  He has two little incisions on his belly, one on the left and one on the right.  They told me to expect a lot of swelling.  Silas has not enjoyed his last few diaper changes to say the least.  He has slept the entire day and hasn't even woke up for feedings.  He has gotten all of his food today through the feeding tube. 

Jason headed back to Flora this evening and I stayed here.  Jason will be back on Saturday and I will ride home with him then.  We were both pretty tired this afternoon and took a nap in Silas' room.  Silas was asleep so we might as well be too.  I slept on the couch and Jason slept in the recliner.  This one is in much better shape though and I am happy to report that it still works and he did not break it. 

Thank you all so much for the prayers.  They mean so much.  I am so thankful that Silas' journey has been such an easy one compared to many other babies here in this nicu.  I know that it is because of the power of prayer and give God the glory for my healthy beautiful baby boy.

I was hoping that Silas would come home in a week.  After speaking with the nurse today I really feel like it is probably going to be closer to two weeks.  Either way, it is still before his due date and I am thankful for that.  This is what needs to happen before he can come home:  he needs to take all of his feedings by bottle or breast (he is getting closer to doing that and for the past week has taken most of them by bottle) and his blood count needs to go up a little.  Right now he is anemic again and he either needs to start making some more red blood cells on his own or get another blood transfusion.  I guess we will see how that goes.  Hoping he comes home soon!!