Today was surgery day.
Which meant leaving the house around 430 in the morning. Nick has started to get nervous for the last couple of days and has been getting irritable. He had been saying he didn't want to have the surgery. But unfortunately that is not an option.
In the morning he was in good spirits.
We were the f'irst ones to arrive (I take full credit for getting so prepared the night before). I was all packed with my own clothes, 5 days worth, clothes for Nick, food and snacks and entertainment for Nick.
Nick was happy that he had some time to play on the compputer while we were waiting.
He was all ready with his Captain America stuffy. He got an arm band as well so he wouldn't get lost.
And he 'had some smiles for the camera. But he kept a tight grip on Cap.
In fact Nick was so comfortable that he actually fell asleep while we waited. That didn't help to make my case to go into the OR with him. Anesthesia said no, that at 6 years old she didn't allow parents to come in.
Nick was ok with that.
While we watied. Kyle followed Nick's example. (He wasn't very happy I took this picture, but I thought that it was an oppurtunity that I couldn't miss)
I wore my Jedi Master Mom shirt for Nick (and added a Sick Kids Surgery Mom).
I was really good for most of the surgery. It was scheduled for 4 hours, but Dr Rutka said it would take about 3 hours. He went in at 8am, so we expected it to be around noon that he would be out. (Allowing time to get his ready prior to surgery starting).
Dr Rutka did come out and talk to us around noon. He told us that the surgery went well. That the cyst was between T7 and T10 vertebra. He said that he was able to drain it well. He made 2 cuts/incisions down the cyst. He told us the cyst was the size of a walnut/lime and that it was an arachnoid cyst (and it was not a syrinx).
He said that it released a lot of pressure on his spinal cord. And that 'It was the right thing to do'
And then it was waitingh for him to be moved into the recovery room. At 'noon ''he came and talked with us. At 1pm the computer said he had moved to the recovery room. And so we waited... and we waited.... and we waited.
And I was getting more and more nervous. Was he not waking up? Was he bleeding? Was there a problem? Why is it taking so long? We watched a lot of different kids names come up with instructions to "See Volunteer" and it was never Nick.
Just after 2 it finally came up. And we could go and see him.
When we got there he was sleeping. He did open his eyes and croak at us when we got there. He said he didn't have any pain. And then would wake up and say he had pain.
We had talked with anesthesia earlier about trying a PCA pump. So we explained it to him, he was able to press the button and then felt better. After about 30 minutes we went up to our room.
We was are staying on 5C, which is the neurosurgery floor (of course) and where Nick went after he was born. Our nurse is one of the nurses that Nick had when he was born and a nurse I went to Ryerson with. So that was really nice.
Nick has been sleeping most of the day.
He will wake up and say he has a bad headache, and his back 'hurts when he is lying on it. So they keep changing positions. The PCA is working well because it is giving him a continuous very low dose and lets him give himself extra when he needs it (I think about 6 times)
Most of the time when Nick is awake he gives us a thumbs up. And then falls right back to sleep.
But Daddy has been getting him to drink some (he is a horrible drinker at the best of times)
It has been a very long day.
We will see what tomorrow brings.
