Whew! What an experience. This is going to be a sort of "play-by-play" post, so just bear with me

We left the house at 6:15 yesterday morning, headed to the outpatient surgery center. We arrived safely and checked in by 7:15. Iliya had a fun time, playing in the lobby area...but then it was time to check vitals.

Iliya has learned to associate the vitals check with the likes of exams and shots - so I knew he wouldn't be particularly thrilled to leave the lobby area. The nurse asked if he would do better on the "laying down" or "standing up" scales, and I told her that it didn't really matter, since he would get upset with either of them.

So I put him on the laying down scales, and sure enough, he cried.

She had to also get his heart rate & blood pressure. As far as I can remember, he hasn't had either of those done before - or, at least in the last 7 months, anyway. He was literally terrified. A child life specialist (who had actually done her internship in another department of my office - so it was kinda cool to see her in action) came in to help us try to distract him, but to no avail. He was just too scared. There's no telling what is heart rate & bp actually were.

But soon enough, that was overwith, and we were back in the lobby, waiting to be taken back to a room.

By 8:15, we were settled back in a room, with Iliya changed into his hospital gown. The setup is very nice at the surgery center - there is a pantry room with snacks and drinks - but Nathan & I felt badly about eating or drinking in front of Iliya (who had not had anything since 7:30 the night before), so we decided to refrain until he was back in surgery (we were terribly hungry and can only imagine how our little guy felt - in fact, he accidentally found some Cheerios that I usually keep in my purse, and I almost had to throw them away to keep him from obsessing over them).


We were visited by the usual people - nurse anesthetist, anesthesiologist, the doctor, and a smattering of other nurses. We were to stay with Iliya until it was his turn for surgery (the anesthesiologist told us that he was 3rd in line, and that the 2nd patient was just going back...so we had an hour, maybe an hour & a half till it was his turn. Good thing we brought a backpack of stuff to do!) and then the nurse would take him back, they would give him some gas to sedate him, and then they would give him an IV, intubate & get the surgery going.

We waited for almost 2 hours for the nurse to come in and say that she was ready to take Iliya back. By that time, we were so very bored - we had sung all the songs & played the games we could think of, and read all the books we had brought...Iliya kept asking to go home, and so we were ready to go ahead & get the show on the road. The nurse came in and he went willingly with her, checking to be sure that I was with him...until I could go no farther. When he realized that I wasn't with him anymore, he completely lost it, and the nurse had to pick him up to carry him the rest of the way to the OR. I watched for a moment and then turned around to find a small audience of nurses and other families watching with sad looks on their faces.

While he was in surgery, we got to stay in the room - which was a very nice thing. Our room had a door that opened to the recovery wing, so we would have easy access, after the surgery was over. I was very adamant with the staff that we see Iliya as soon as absolute possible. They assured us that in the recovery room, he would likely remain asleep and when he started stirring, they would bring him to us.

So for an hour, we waited.

Then the doctor came in and told us that everything went remarkably well...he answered any questions we had...told us that Iliya would be with us in about 20 minutes...and then was on his way.

About a half hour later, our nurse came in to ask if Iliya likes apple juice. We said yes, and she brought a cup full of it. She then retrieved the bed from the room and said she would be back soon, with our little one in tow.

A few minutes later, from just beyond the door, we heard Iliya crying - but then we realized it was his "sleep" cry...a sort of moan that never really wakes him up. This went on for just a few seconds and then it stopped. We felt like we would see him right away, but it was still another 15 minutes before the door opened, and 2 nurses came in - one pushing the bed with the IV fluids, and one holding a very groggy Iliya. The nurse holding Iliya handed him over to me and told me how perfect he had been - she said that he had cried a little while before (which we knew), and she had been holding him ever since.

It made me feel good to know that - even if he wasn't awake - Iliya was being held, rather than left alone in a hospital bed. And they brought him to us as soon as they could. I sat up on the bed and held him for another hour, to make sure he got enough fluids and to let him try to wake up.


He was in & out, drinking his juice, for most of the hour. If anyone came in, or if Nathan moved anywhere in the room, Iliya would track them through half-closed eyes.

When the nurse came in to take his IV out, his eyes flew open and he immediately began fighting - it took both Nathan & me to hold him down. I guess he thought that it was time for more pain. But the IV came out just fine, and Iliya settled down. When the nurse went to leave, Iliya opened his eyes, looked over at her and said, "Bye Bye!" and closed his eyes once again.

We were then free to change him & leave.

He slept almost the entire way home, and then for about 3 hours once we got home.


When he got up, I'm sure he still had some pain medication in his system, because he was still groggy, but ready to have something to eat and drink! When the pain meds began wearing off, he started complaining about his boo-boo. So we gave him a little bit more medicine and he felt better for a while.

We ate dinner, and he went to bed around 8:00.

He woke up around 2:45 this morning, soaked to the bone (from all the IV fluids). So I did a bedding/PJ change...and dressed the 'area' the best I could in the dark. After that, he slept until almost 8:00 this morning.

With the help of pain meds, he has been fairly comfortable today - if a little too active for my nerves.

It looks like I'm going to be out of work a couple more days than I had anticipated. At our consult, the nurse had given me inaccurate information - and I hadn't thought I would need to take much (if any) extra time off. However, yesterday, the doctor told me that Iliya really needed to stay out of school for a week... so I'm going to take a couple extra days off, and then reassess. My MIL may keep Iliya for a day or two if he's still not ready to go back to school...but we'll play it by ear and just see how things go.

For now, I'm going to get off this computer and try to head off to bed.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers!