Sick Day

In the middle of September, Jack had hernia surgery.  He did a wonderful job, and everything went very smoothly.  He recovered quickly and his follow-up appointment with the surgeon was great.  Yeah!

Here he is playing in the little toy room at the surgery center before they took him back for the surgery.  He wasn't scared about the surgery or upset about being separated from me, but he was sad about having to leave the toys!  Even now when we talk about his surgery, he brings up the toy room.  Thank goodness he has a positive memory associated with the experience!

The surgery lasted about an hour and a half.  They called me to come see him in the recovery room right away, and this is what I walked into.  Isn't he sweet??



You can tell in this picture that he started to feel uncomfortable as the anesthesia wore off.  He cried and flailed a bit, then the nurse gave him a little painkiller in his IV, which helped him fall back asleep briefly and then wake up much more calmly.  We stayed in the recovery room until he ate a little something and showed that he wasn't going to throw it up.  Good job, Jack!  :-)
 

The surgeon and other medical staff told us that Jack needed to take it easy for a week or two after the surgery.  Ummm.... right.  Obviously, they don't know Jack very well.  He did great after his surgery and we really only knew that he was uncomfortable when we were changing his diaper and he didn't want to be wiped.  We got a prescription painkiller for him, which he only ever got two doses of: one at bedtime the night of the surgery, as a precaution, and the second we gave him right before a babysitter came to take care of him while we went on a date, again, as a precaution soon after the surgery.  That being said, we did try to follow doctor's orders and take it easy for a few days.

As it so happened, Cat had to stay home from school the next day with a stomach bug, so we all just took a sick day and tried to do some good quiet things that would help Jack stay calm.  First was craft time.  We just took out a bunch of random stuff from our craft stash and went to town.  Cat helped Jack a lot, which was cute to see.







Cat ended up with a bunch of pipe cleaner and pom-pom curly things and feathers glued onto popsicle sticks.  We thought they looked cool in a vase on her desk.

And Jack came up with a couple of 3-D pieces that really brighten up the kitchen.  Thanks, big guy!

The next big activity was play dough outside on the deck.  The weather was perfect - and keeping the mess outside was perfect too.

Be careful about leaning back in your chair, Cat.  I'd hate for you to...

Oops!

I'd have to say that all in all, it was a pretty good sick day.