Surgery #6

Taylor did really well yesterday for his surgery. We had to wait for about 3 or 4 hours before they took him into surgery and Taylor was so quiet and anxious. He was able to have both Grandma Shauna and Grandma Susie there with him and I am sure it helped him to have so much love and support around him. This is the first time I have ever seen him not talk to people, he wouldn't answer one question from anyone. When they get him ready for surgery they have him get into his hospital gown, they put cream on his hand to numb it for the IV, and they give him Valium to calm him before they take him back. It seems to affect him a little different each time and this time it gave him the giggles. He couldn't stop laughing. There was a couple times we thought that he was laughing at something on the TV but he was just looking around and laughing.

Before surgery they take Taylor from his room to a holding room where we met with the doctor and the anesthesiologist. The sensation he felt on the ride from his room must have been pretty crazy for him because he kept looking around with big eyes and then would just start laughing. He kept laughing while we were in the holding room and kept setting off one of his alarms because he wasn't breathing deep enough. He was so cute and to see him laughing made it a little easier to leave him and watch him go into the operating room. I think that was the first time that I didn't cry when I left him. I also think it helped having so much support there to be with me while he was in surgery. When we came out from the holding room, Carrie was there with Audrey. That was such a nice surprise and it was fun to have lunch with everyone and to be able to have such good people to visit with while we waited.

His surgery lasted forever (just over 2 hours). Usually when we're just having hardware put in it doesn't take that long. As we got closer to 2:00 pm, I started to get more and more anxious. His doctor finally came out and said that everything went really well and that because we had done so much to his knee that he was going to be really sore. Taylor didn't come back to his room until 3:00 pm and he was wide awake and feeling pain. The more I talked to him and his nurse, I think the pain was more a weird uncomfortable feeling than ouchy pain. I was surprised to see that they must have had a hard time starting an IV on him because his IV was in his foot. That kind of freaked me out, especially when they wanted Taylor to get up and start walking. They were able to remove his IV before he had to walk. Taylor was able to keep a popcicle down and then he was ready for soup and crackers and pain pills. Luckily, Grandma Shauna was able to take a couple pictures of Taylor once he was feeling good enough to eat.

Taylor was so excited for that chicken noodle soup! I tried to feed him with my left hand and was making a mess and even though this looks awkward, I was able to feed him and actually get the soup in his mouth.

This is only about two hours after surgery. We were working with the physical therapist to either fit Taylor with a walker or crutches. He didn't do so well with the crutches and so he came home with a walker. He did so well that we were able to leave the hospital by 6:00 pm. He even did wonderful walking from the car to the stairs, Kenny carried him up the stairs and then he walked to our door and into our home. He is so amazing!!

Taylor not only did wonderful getting through his surgery, he also survived having his mom and grandma's talking and visiting. We had so much fun telling stories and I always love hearing stories from mine and Kenny's mom's childhood. He survived me telling his nurse his banana costume story. And, most importantly, the staff and our room mate survived our hospital humor!

Thank you to Dr. Hennessey for doing such an amazing job and taking care of my little boy!

Thank you to Dr. Carroll for finding us and coming in to check on "her patient"!

Thank you to everyone out there who was thinking of Taylor and praying for him!