Hydrocele Operation -- Aka More Hospital Fun

What a day this has been. I am exhausted, which is totally unfair! Everyone else has been sleeping on and off all day long, but yours truly has not had a nap all day. It seems every time I close my eyes, someone calls, Sh.awn wakes up (from what I am guess is a bad dream from the startled look on his face when his eyes open), the cat decides that she must lay on me at that exact moment, or something else equally annoying happens (not that Sh.awn waking is annoying).

So how did today go you ask? Well. Like I said before, things around us are never boring. I mean, boring would be too easy, right? We must attract drama or something. I swear it follows us everywhere!

The day started at the crack of dawn. First of all, I am not, by any means, a morning person. I never have been, and I KNOW I never will be. I even managed to get the boys trained to sleep in until 9 ish on most mornings! So, anyway, I pull my cranky self out of bed this morning while it was still dark outside. (OMG. I hadn't realized that it would be so dark at 5 in the morning. Good Lord, people, why does anyone get up at that time in the morning?!!? Jeez, and with the number of people on the road, it seems to be a common occurrence!) This was of course, after a fitful night of sleep, so I was even crankier than I would have been had I not been worried. We got ourselves up, dressed, fed, and out of the house in time to make it to the hospital by our 6 o'clock appointment time.

We are such stupid fools.

Because you know that no one was ready for us at 6 am. That would be too easy. Instead we admitted Sh.awn and sat in the waiting room. Waiting. And waiting. Until we we're finally called back into the pre-op room at 7:15.

Waiting with a toddler is never fun. Waiting with a hungry toddler is even less fun. Waiting with a hungry toddler in a germ infested hospital with people hacking up lungs not more than five seats away from us was awful. (I swear I am going to lose it if Sh.awn gets sick from the wait.)

So we were escorted up to pre-op. They re asked the same questions Is.aac had answered earlier this week. They checked Sh.awn's vitals and hooked him up to the machines. And guess what happened next?

We waited some more!

At 7:50, the doctor finally came in to talk to us and ask if we had any questions. Um, no.

Then the anesthesiologist came in to speak to us. He asked if we've been through this before and got a brief history of how Sh.awn dealt with the anesthesia. I asked specifically about IVs and venting. I was told that they would anesthetize Sh.awn with the facial mask BEFORE they placed his IV. I let them know that Sh.awn's veins are shot, and that they needed to place his IV on his right side, where he has had fewer IVs and therefore has better veins. Oh, yes, yes I was assured. The operation was to last about 35 minutes.

At 8:12, they came to take Sh.awn to the operating room. We were sent to a small waiting room just outside of the main wing and next to the elevator. It was big enough for 4 chairs.

Is.aac and I were nervously talking when the alarms first started. Then I kid you not, a nurse came over to the waiting area we were in, told us that they were having a fire alarm, closed the doors to the hospital wing, and left us locked in the waiting room!

With no way out except for the elevator which was clearly labeled to not use during a fire alarm!

While our baby was in the operating room--vented and cut open!

Just as we were nearly in a panic (well, just as we were assessing how we could break the glass window behind us so we could get out), another nurse came and opened the door to the waiting area. Apparently they were testing the alarm system and there was no danger.

That probably would have been nicer to know about three minutes earlier. It is a good thing we didn't actually follow through with the escape plan!

The alarms, though, continued to ring every three minutes the entire time we were there. The. Entire. Time.

Sigh.

Meanwhile, my poor little Sh.awn Bon was being tortured. When I finally went to recovery to see him after it was all over, I was not pleased to see his IV in his neck. The recovery nurse said that Sh.awn had difficult veins. Um, when I checked him, though, he had only one IV attempt on his right side. He had EIGHT IV ATTEMPTS ON HIS LEFT SIDE. They tried 9 times to place an IV in my poor little guy. I definitely let them know my frustration with that. Oh yes I did. Especially when she said that Sh.awn fought him during each attempt. That right there tells me they didn't anesthetize him first. Ug.

Why don't they listen? It isn't like I know anything right? I am only his freaking mother.

Sigh.

The IV issue is my only complaint (albeit a HUGE one). Well, that and being locked in the waiting room during the fire alarm.

The rest of the surgery went well. The surgery itself took about an hour and 15 minutes because of the IV fiasco. He stayed in recovery long enough to wake up and hold some sugar water down. We left the hospital by around 10:00.

Now, he's swollen and has an inch long incision. It looks as good as having you groin cut and prodded could look. They said he'd be black and blue for a bit, too. They want us to ice it as much as possible, but Sh.awn is having none of that.

He's had more milk so far today than he ever has and held down his solids. He doesn't seem to be in pain. He's smiling and playing when he's awake. Everything looks good so far.

So there you have it--another exciting hospital adventure.

Let's hope it was the last.