Daniel's Surgery

Daniel did great yesterday...he is such a trooper.

Of course, it totally helped that we had turned the whole thing into a Playdate/Surgery by driving on down and spending the night with our buddies, the S family. Daniel (and the rest of my kiddos) had a ball playing with Natalie, Neeleigh and Aaron (and now we can't wait for Mr. Callan to come home!).

(I should insert right here some cute pics of our seven children playing together so sweetly yesterday...alas, Melissa and I were so busy talking that I did not take one picture at their house!)

The good part of Daniel's surgery not being scheduled until 4:00 p.m. was that meant we got to hang out and play for a good long while before he and I headed to the hospital at 1:15 p.m. (we were supposed to be there by 2:00).

The bad part: Daniel could not eat one bit of food or drink milk yesterday, and he could only have water until 11:45 a.m. And then....n.o.t.h.i.n.g.

Waiting to be called back for surgery. Yes, each of his jaguars is riding a Monster Truck.

While he did tell me a few times (sometimes with his lower lip poked out) that he was hungry...I thought he handled it all extremely well. (I, on the other hand, would have bitten off the heads of everyone in a 10-mile radius - just ask Jas.)

Feeling camera-shy?

Nah!

They ended up taking Daniel back early, so he was actually already done and out by the time we hit 4 p.m.! Now that is what I call a quick, smooth surgery! Thank you, Lord!

Since it was supposed to be a pretty quick procedure (we didn't know how quick it would prove to be, though), we had them skip the Versed (a.k.a. "Sleepy Juice"), because we knew it would make his waking up in recovery harder after-the-fact. And the anesthesiologist chose to put him to sleep with a mask, instead of starting an IV. Those two things helped immensely with the speed of the procedure and Daniel's subsequent recovery.

Daniel traveled in style from the holding area back to the operating room.

As soon as they took Daniel back, Jas headed to the Chick-Fil-A in the hospital (which closes at 4 p.m.) so we'd have some yummy food ready for Daniel when he could eat again. It was all over so quick that Jas wasn't even back with the food yet when Dr. M came out to give us the report!

I told her if we'd known it was going to be that quick and easy, we'd have just asked our friend/vet Hank to do it! (When I texted back and for forth with Hank's wife Anna later, who happens to be a dear friend, she said he totally would have done it...and charged us alot less!)

While Dr. M and I were talking, Jas showed back up with the CFA...and my parents. They were in town dropping my visiting brother off at the airport, so they were able to come by to see Daniel (and they were going to take the other 3 children home, but Daniel got discharged quickly enough that they all just rode home with me.) I was so glad that my parents finally got to meet our favorite Dr. M, whom we're so crazy about. (This was the 8th surgery that Dr. M has done on our children (5 for Daniel, 2 for Noah, 1 for LK), so it was about time they got to meet her!)

When Daniel was wheeled into the post-op room, he was already sitting up and drinking some Sprite. Then he got to have a blue icy (our children's hospital just got an icy machine - woohoo!). And then, just as soon as the nurse gave us the o.k., Daniel at his CFA: 12 nuggets and an order of fries. Yes, twelve nuggets!

Inhaling his nuggets in the recovery room. Dr. M told me after the surgery that when she asked Daniel - just before he was put out - if he would share his CFA with her later, he said, "No...I am so hungry! I have not had any food ALL DAY!"

Daniel slept with me last night, just so I could keep an eye on him. He is doing great today. You'd be hard-pressed to know that he'd had anything done yesterday! We are extremely blessed and thankful!