Robert's Hernia Surgery

On the Friday before Robert's surgery, the Dr.'s office called and said his surgery wouldn't be until 3 in the afternoon on Monday, March 1. How do you tell a 5 year old they cannot eat all day? I decided that if they couldn't move the surgery to an earlier time slot we would reschedule. I had Mark call the office. They moved the surgery so that we arrived at the hospital at noon.

Grammy Su and Grandpa Bob came down to watch Richard and to pick up the other kids from school. Grandpa Bob also took Matthew to get his driver's licence since the surgery was scheduled on Matthew's 16th birthday.

We got ready the morning of the surgery. Robert was a trooper and did not complain much about not being able to eat. We decided to leave for San Antonio early and run some errands before the surgery. We hoped that it would help keep Robert's mind off of food.

Around 11am we got a call from the Dr.'s office asking if we could come to the hospital then. They had had a cancellation and could do Robert' s surgery as soon as we got there. We were 10 minutes away from the hospital so we headed that way.

They got us right back. Robert was already in surgery by the time we were supposed to arrive at the hospital.

They gave Robert some medicine called Versed. It make them act silly and forget things. The Dr. asked Robert to spell his name. Robert sang his name song. Then the Dr. asked Robert to spell his name backwards. Robert thought about it for a minute and then very slowly spelled his name backwards. T....R... roller coaster E...B... O... R.



the blue tube is an oxygen tube. The mask made Robert mad so they had it blowing on his face through this tube. Even the oxygen blowing on his face this way agitated him. He kept pushing it away. Finally he grabbed it and put it away from his face and went back to sleep.

After the surgery, Robert kept saying he was "froze". We thought he was cold and asked for another heated blanket. He still insisted he was "Froze". A couple of hours later, when we were getting Robert dressed to come home, I asked Robert to lift his bum so that I could pull up his pants. He said "I can't, I'm froze" Well, the anaesthesiologist had given him a caudal (like and epidural) to numb the surgery site. Robert's legs were numb hence "froze". We laughed. Robert was not fully able to walk again until about 10 that night. We had to help him walk when we got home. I think he liked the extra attention and the sensation of being able to move his legs but not really being able to use them. I'm sure it felt weird.

His cut is healing great and he was almost back to his very active self by the next night.