Alex's adventures in the hospital...

Where to start?  I guess I'll let the pictures tell the story.  We've been prepping Alex for quite a while about his surgery (cleaning out diseased tissue in his eardrum w/reconstruction of the eardrum in a year or so).  So he was actually kind of excited because he knew his ear was going to get better, friends and family were going to bring him cards and he even had some packages.  So, this would be the, "Look at me...I'm big and brave!  This won't be so bad!" picture.

The day before Alex's surgery we got a call from the doctor's office informing us that the anesthesiologist had requested that the surgery take place at the hospital instead of the surgery center.  The only time they had available was 7:00 AM (with a 5:30 AM check-in time).  We decided that Noall would take him to the hospital while I got the kids off to school, dropped off Emma, and headed over to the hospital later on.  But at 5:30 in the morning, Alex wasn't excited about that plan, so I promised him I would hurry and come see him at the hospital before his surgery.  So I threw together breakfast and the kid's lunches and called a friend on the way to her house to see if I could drop them off before 6:30 AM.  She kindly obliged...don't you love friends like that?!?

 He got all ready for his surgery with Daddy.  He's showing off some of his new "toys".  I literally got there just in time to give him a big squeeze, tell him I loved him, and watch them wheel him away.  He was still pretty optimistic about everything and cheerfully waved as he left.  During our last minute chat with the doctor he explained that instead of this being an outpatient procedure, that Alex would need to stay overnight and be discharged in the morning (looking back I am really glad we stayed, bur it required a bit of scrambling again to figure out babysitting for the other kids).


The good news: the procedure took just over four hours and seems to be a success.  Next year, the doctor will go back in and make sure there hasn't been any regrowth, but he's very optimistic.

More good news: his thumb was able to poke through all the bandages so he could soothe himself back to sleep after some more narcotics!

The bad news: Alex wasn't quite as excited after the procedure as he was before...but he still tried REALLY 

 HARD to be happy!

 

I mean...seriously...look at that face!!!  Poor little guy!  He spent most of yesterday fairly miserable...I'll spare you the details!  But there were moments that were better than others.  Like:

 

Polishing off some strawberry jello with Daddy.

Riding around in the playroom...it's only so much fun with an IV...

 

Taking pictures of mommy.

Watching "Little Einsteins", "Chicken Little", "Wall-E", "Brother Bear", etc. etc.

Can you tell he couldn't keep anything down yesterday?  He had quite the appetite this morning!  After breakfast this morning, we got to go home!!!!!