Post-op news...

My son is now out of surgery; I'm sorry I don't have my USB cable with me, and can't show photos, but the short story is that everything went okay. When we got here, he immediately got VERY anxious and wanted to either go into another room and play with trains (who wouldn't?), or just get out of there entirely. He so disliked having the ID bracelet on his wrist that he gnawed off the flimsy piece of plastic; attaboy. We were taken into a pre-op room, where the drama continued. They gave him some anti-anxiety medicine orally, which he promptly spat out. They then gave it via intramuscular injection, and within 3 minutes, he was well on his way to happyland. I asked him, "How old are you?" Sleepily, he said, "Good." Yeah, see ya on the other side. He was so relaxed that he let loose on me; it's almost like he said, "You win this round, but I'll relieve myself on you!!" Cheeky kid. He then went into surgery, and my wife and I got a quick lunch of Italian beef sandwiches in Children's Memorial's cafeteria (it was actually a good sandwich!! I commend them!!). My wife got her sandwich dry; I got mine dipped with giardinera. We then went back up to the waiting room, and my wife nervously fretted typing online while I read my Big Star book and took a quick snooze.

After an hour and a half, the doctor came back to tell me that everything went really great. The incision they made to cut his groin tendon is about an inch long, on the inside of the right side of his groin. She also did an arthrogram, and was very happy with the current shape of the bone. The bone can take up to two years to re-vascularize (for blood-flow to get back to the top of the bone, to allow the bone to reconstruct itself), and it's key that the bone reform itself spherically and not egg-shaped. By having the brace on, it forces that there is no weight borne on the right hip, and encourages the bone to regrow properly. He woke out of anaesthesia very cranky and groggy, and wanted both the brace off and the I.V. in his left arm. Also, they bound the brace with fiberglass casting material; even if we (his parents) wanted to take it off, we couldn't. We've already had a physical therapy consult; the therapist showed us how we are going to transfer him from bed to wheelchair.

Right now, he is laying in bed watching Meet The Robinsons (did I mention we brought our portable DVD player? Gotta bring some of the comforts of home now, don't we?). He still wants the brace and IV off, but at least now he is calm. I hope we can get through 6 weeks of recovery. At least now we have our son back; we will be able to figure out the rest.