Umbilical Hernia Repair

Nolan had his hernia repair surgery on April 17th. It didn't help that the surgery had been postponed twice due to illness. I think he'd truly started to believe it just wouldn't ever happen. He did well leading up to the day of, he even did well as we arrived and got registered. The moment we got put in his room though, the anxiety surfaced full-force. His sad little, "But I don't want to have surgery" and, "Can we go home" pleas broke my heart.

I'm so thankful for whatever they gave him to help him relax, because when they wheeled him off, he was hugging that plush wolf and elephant blanket without a care in the world.

We were certainly underprepared for what happened upon his wake up from anesthesia and what would follow for two to three days. When they explained his recovery to us it was something along the lines of: He'll be sore for a few days, then he'll forget he had surgery and you'll have to remind him to be careful. 

When I sat next to Nolan as he woke up, I was certainly not prepared for my child to wildly arch his back before weakly rolling from side to side while he screamed. Nurses quickly got pain medicine to him via his IV and then explained to us, at length, how much pain he'd be in for two days. They explained how muscle and fascia had been cut through to repair his tear, and how painful it can be as those nerve endings start to heal. They called us in oxycodone, told us to keep him still for a few days, gave us ideas on how to make him comfortable. And all of this, in the midst of my screaming child, was the first time they'd mentioned this degree of discomfort. If I'm being honest, I wanted to scream at them for it. Not that it would've made a difference. Though, being prepared for that kind of response and recovery might have made me better able to cope with it myself.

For two days post-op, my kid cried any time he moved. He couldn't stand or walk, he couldn't even sit up on his own. We gave oxycodone, tylenol, and motrin around the clock. The oxy was the only thing that seemed to help. By day three post-op we had to make him get up and walk a few times per day. From there the recovery sped up drastically and by one week post-op he seemed mostly back to normal and I was having to remind him of activity restrictions. 

So, that whole 'he'll be sore for a few days' is the understatement of the year, I'm pretty sure.

I'm just glad it's behind us now.

[written 4/30/19]
*I have a lot of drafts I never published for some reason. Going through them all and publishing them :) *