Surgery...

Surgery was November 10th in Temple at the Children's Hospital.  The surgeon, Dr Danny Little, was great! He went over everything with us during pre-op, was very open about what was going to happen and about how long it would take. Originally he stated that surgery would last about 30 minutes and Dylan would only be away from us about 45 minutes.  We carried Dylan to the operating room doors and handed him off to the nurses...probably the single hardest thing I have ever done in my life!  Surgery took a little longer than expected, it took about 1 hour 15 minutes.  I was on pins and needles when the 30 minutes passed, then 45, then an hour!  We heard the anesthesiologist coming down the hall and felt some relief.  She was coming to tell us that the surgery went well and that they were going to be waking him up and moving him to AICU (Acute ICU) in a few minutes, but she wanted to tell us he was ok.  The surgeon came in about 15 minutes later and told us that the cyst was attached differently than expected and that's why it took longer.  Rather than having a single root that attached to his skull, he had a root system that spread along his skull & they have to scrap all that off, so it took longer.  We went up and saw him in his little bed hooked up to everything and the AICU nurses said he had already eating 4 ounces!  He was a hungry fella when he woke up. We were able to go home that day, and I stayed home with him the next day just to make sure he was back to normal. The follow up a week later went well & the biopsy came out great!  He said from our initial appointment to surgery it grew from the size of a pea to a lima bean.  That's kind of quick!  The incision looks great, and scaring should be minimal.

1 Day After Surgery

Tubes...

Well yesterday was the big day!  Colton officially has tubes in his ears, and I couldn't more excited!  I hope this keeps ear infections at bay and that we can move past the last couple of months.  Everything went great with the surgery and his recovery.

We got to the surgical center at 6:30am to finish filling out paperwork.  Must admit I read every inch of that paperwork!  When I have medical paperwork to fill out on myself, I skim it and initial/sign where they tell me to.  Not yesterday, yesterday I read every square inch and every word on those papers; I wanted to know exactly what I was signing for him.  What was I promising not to make them liable for, what exactly are all the possible side effect/reactions, everything!  After everything was signed, they took us back to do his vitals.  It was funny, they took his weight (a whooping 22.8lbs!), Kyle picked him up and the nurse looked up and says 'Oh my God' starts laughing and says 'You are definitely your daddy's baby!'  It's always funny to see people's reactions when they realize how much Kyle and Colton look alike :)  Anyway, then we had all the 'talks' with the nurses, ENT doctor, and anesthesiologist about the procedure and what to expect afterwards.  The nurse came and took Colton from us, which was super hard on mommy, and we went back to the consult room to wait for them to come get us afterwards.  I sat down, looked at the clock on my phone, it was 7:43am.  A little bit later the ENT doctor comes in and tells us how surgery went. He walked out, I looked at my clock again, it was 7:50am.  You read that right...7:50am! The entire thing took less than 10 minutes!  They then came back, got us, and took us to Colton's bedside so we could wait for him to wake up.  It took a few minutes, but when he came out of the sleep he jolted and woke up.  He was a little disoriented, groggy, and fussy.  I picked him up, gave him a bottle of juice, and talked to him; he calmed right down.  The nurse said he must be a great baby because most come out of the sleep crying and are hard to console...nope not my trooper he rocked it!  We had to wait for them to release him, that wait was actually longer than the actual procedure.  After we were released, we loaded up and head home.  By the time we got home the anesthesia had completely wore off and he went right to playing with his toys!  They had said he would maybe be groggy or cranky in the morning, but by afternoon would be back to normal, and he was back to normal within a couple hours of surgery.  He is such a big boy and trooper.  Mommy and Daddy were so proud!

Momma I can't find anything to play with...