Noah's Surgery...and an Update on Him

I gave the quick version here.

But now? I get to indulge myself and talk at length about my precious Noah and how good he did for the surgery...and how good he has done since the surgery.

I mentioned here how anxious he was about this surgery. He has been through so much harder things (like two open-heart surgeries)...but it doesn't help to try to reason like that with a 7-year old who can't remember those early surgeries...but certainly knows what is about to happen now!

So Jas and I gave Noah a little gift.

Can you see it?



It's a Shield of Faith pendant!

On the back it reads:

Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. (Joshua 1:9b)

Just as we'd prayed...he loves it! This tangible reminder of the truths that this precious boy already gets was a real help to Noah.

Noah and I headed down to the children's hospital on Monday, leaving at about 8:00 a.m. (o.k., it was closer to 8:15). Daddy took the day off to stay at home with the other three chitlins.

The surgery was scheduled for 2:45 and they originally told us to be there at 12:45. But then the hospital called back on Friday afternoon and said that because of his cardiac history we needed to be there at 10 a.m. instead, so they could start an IV and start pumping fluids into Noah before the surgery.

Noah had been very anxious about the IV in particular, knowing they would start it while he was awake (read: aware of pain!). But the nurses used a new device we'd never seen before - a J-Tip - that delivered lidocaine to the location right before the stick...and his IV insertion did not hurt at all. He started crying at first...and then realized it didn't hurt...so he stopped. YAY!

Then he got to sport this look for the next several hours before his surgery:

But it didn't stop him from fully enjoying all the attractions that our children's hospital has to offer, like the riding toys...

...and video games (he and I played Mario games for over an hour!)...

...and (mean mom that I am!) he even got to do a little school while we were waiting.

And he was able to concentrate enough on his math to astound me...again!

He did #14 in his head! I wouldn't believe it, except I saw him do it!

Can you read it?

"Abby collects little toy dogs. She already had 45 of them at the beginning of this year. She bought 11 more, got 5 for her birthday, and 8 for Christmas. How many more must she collect before she has 100 dogs?"

Enough bragging...back to the surgery story...

When Noah and I were having our pre-surgery consultation with Dr. M (yes, our urologist that has done surgery on 3 of our kiddos...our favorite doctor ever!) and our anesthesiologist, Dr. G. Noah got big tears in his eyes. Dr. G, a very nice doctor (and a mama herself) saw the tears and immediately said "Well, Noah, we'll just get your mother some coveralls and she'll come back to the OR with us!"

WHAT?!!?!?

This is the 12th surgery we've had there...we never knew we could do that!

But we did it this time and it was cool!

I wore something over my hair, fully-body coveralls and booties and got to hold Noah's hand as he fell asleep on the table. He didn't like the looks of the gas mask (that is putting it mildly) so Dr. G inserted medicine in Noah's IV...and literally less than 10 seconds later his eyes rolled up in his head and he was out! I could not believe how fast that happens!

After spending some quality time in the recovery room...we got to head home. Almost 12 (not-so) short hours after we pulled out of the drive-way we pulled back in.

Noah slept with us Monday night, so we could keep an eye on him (this helps this mama heart sleep better).

And starting Tuesday morning, someone who didn't know any different would never have guessed that this guy had surgery on Monday afternoon!

Spending some quality time with Lily Kay on my bed on Tuesday morning...he's "resting"!

True confession time:

We did some yard work on Tuesday evening after an early supper...and Noah hauled branches with the rest of the children...no one ever gave it a second thought! And THEN, after he'd asked multiple times, we took a quick bike ride around the neighborhood...and not until we were halfway done did it even occur to me and I said "NOAH! You just had surgery yesterday...we probably shouldn't be doing this!" YIKES! Please don't call DFCS on us!

We praise the Lord for how well Noah's surgery went...and how great his recovery has gone! We don't take this - or anything else - for granted. We acknowledge that this like "every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights..." (James 1:17)