Landon's Surgery

Mr. Landon has been through quite a bit the last few weeks...thankfully nothing was causing him pain, but it's been a very stressful and emotional time for momma (and daddy!).   

I took Landon on September 19th for his 3 year well check.  All looked great!  However, when the doctor looked at Landon's testicles one side looked like it had more fluid in it than the other.  She recommended that we go see a pediatric urologist just to get his opinion on whether Landon maybe had "hydrocele."  (Rewind to NC and one of Landon's doctor's appointments...I noticed that sometimes one side looked bigger than the other, but she said it was no big deal so I haven't thought much of over the past 2 years...)  

I got Landon an appointment with the urologist the following Friday, the 26th.  The doctor is in AI DuPont Children's Hospital.  I was a mess in the waiting area...I was anxious for Landon's appointment, but also so sad for so many of the families there that were dealing with so much worse than us.  Oh my heart just broke.  I tried to hold it together, but I don't do that too well.  We met the doctor, he looked at Landon, confirmed he did have hydrocele and then said the "s" word...surgery.  He would need to have surgery to correct this.  Basically when boys are forming in utero their little balls travel down a tube to get where they need to go, well this tube usually closes right away or within the first 12-18 months.  Apparently Landon's never closed on his left side and that is why sometimes it looked bigger than the right side.  Of course when surgery was mentioned I broke into huge tears.  Landon didn't understand what was wrong and grabbed my cheeks with his hands and said, "what wrong momma?  I give you smoochy to make you feel better."  Well that made me cry even more :)  My sweet man!  The doctor assured us over and over again that this was a very simple procedure and a very easy fix!  BUT...it is still MY baby!

Within the next week we got a phone call to schedule the surgery and we wanted to do it as soon as possible.  The earliest they could get us in was Tuesday, October 14.  Talk about anxiety...it was awful.  What scared us the most was the anesthesia...everyone was wonderful though and several nurses called prior to the surgery to ask if we had questions and to talk us through what was going to happen...each one heard my tears and couldn't have been nicer about everything.

The morning of the surgery came and Landon could only have clear liquids and jello.  We told him the night before he could have jello and gatorade for breakfast and he thought that was so cool!  The morning of, not so cool, although he never was upset about not being able to eat.  He was such a trooper!  He knew once he was done at the "peeper doctor" he could eat.  We left at about 9:30 and I was scared Landon would get car sick, only having gatorade in his belly, but he did just fine.  My mom, John, dad, and Jamie were all there waiting for us when we arrived.  As I checked in Landon, I just cried.  He had NO idea what was going to happen and I just hated the thought of it all...

They called us back to pre-op and we waited in there for a bit.  I brought Landon some new Paw Patrol books to read while we waited and he liked that!  They gave him some type of medicine that really calmed him down and apparently makes them forget the day.  Landon was getting very sleepy...he even asked to get in the bed to lay down.  We snuggled and looked at pictures on my camera, while we waited on the anesthesiologist to come in.  (The doctor doing the surgery had already been in, the nurses did what they needed to do, this was the only person we were waiting on and she took forever!!)  Once she came in it was "go time" and they said to give hugs and kisses.  I cried and cried giving my sweet man his kisses and as they wheeled my Landon man away he didn't even seem phased, which for him means the medicine BEYOND did the trick.  Keith and I were a mess!  That was probably the hardest part of the day for us, them wheeling him away...no fun.  A sweet nurse talked to us for awhile to let us know what was going to happen and really calmed us down.  We walked back out to the waiting area where my family was and we cried a little more.  Then we headed to the waiting PACU, which is the post-anesthesia waiting area.  This is where you just wait. ...and wait...and wait.  You wait for a nurse to come out and tell you he's doing great, you wait for the doctor to come out and tell you it's all done and he did great, and then you wait to be told you can go back and be with your baby.  This was LONG, well not really, about 2 hours, but it was a LONG 2 hours!  Once we heard everything was great, that Landon did great, that he was sleeping off the anesthesia, we felt so much better!

waiting in pre-op with my sweetness

We finally got to go back and see Landon around 2.  He was still sleeping and had a nurse right by his side the whole time monitoring him.  Everything looked great!  Landon kind of woke up, rolled his eyes, and then went back to sleep.  I kept asking the nurse if everything looked normal, was everything ok, and she assured me that he looked great!  When Landon woke up the first thing out of his mouth was, "I want my binky."  ha!!  We knew our Landon man was JUST FINE after asking for that!  He rested for about an hour more and then we were discharged.  

We went down to the hospital pharmacy to get Landon his medicine and he threw up.  He drank some apple juice once he woke up and I guess sitting in the chair with me at the pharmacy was too much upright after the anesthesia.  Keith brought the van to the front of the hospital and I carried Landon like a baby...the kid is not light!  He slept pretty much the whole way home and then as we turned onto our street, he threw up again.  Poor guy!  Thankfully at that point we were home and he could rest on the sofa.  After a little resting he drank, ate snacks, was watching shows...doing pretty good!

The day after...he was getting into trouble in the pantry :)  This was after a dose of his medicine too!

Resting with Mommy on the sofa 

He really did so well with everything!  He has about a 2 inch incision on his very lower abdomen, but it never really bothered him too much.  We did have some peeing issues, but thankfully that was short lived.  The hardest part is making sure the little man takes it easy!!  Landon and take it easy do not go together :)

On Friday we went to Dogtown with Mum-Mum and Pop-Pop!  He ate tater tots and ice cream...that's what happens when you are recovering from surgery!

We couldn't be prouder of our big boy!  He handled it all so well and did so great with everything!  It was MUCH harder on Keith and I, than him.  He got lots of Paw Patrol presents, watched lots of shows, ate whatever he wanted and the best part is he doesn't remember a thing!  He even said to my mom the other day, "I must have bumped into something" when we were talking about his boo boo...too funny!  SOOO glad it's over and so glad our baby did so well!