What a Trooper

Everyone: thank you so much for all of your calls, texts, comments, and thoughts this week! As usual, they all made us feel much better about being scared – we know we are not alone.

Jax’s surgeries went very well! The eye doctor was very happy with the results; hopefully this means no more treatment for the ROP! We will go back for a follow-up exam in two weeks to see how he’s healing. The hernia doctor was also very happy with the results. He said there was a “significant” amount of intestine that had to be rearranged so it was a very involved surgery. He fixed both of his inguinal hernias; the umbilical hernia is no problem and will most likely go away on it’s own. All in all, Jax was in surgery for just over  2 hours.

He was slow to wake up from the anesthesia and had two spells during that time. He was able to pull out of both of them with no assistance. He was a little cranky, but mostly just slept. At about 5:00pm, he was back to his regular smiley self! I feel very lucky that he’s such a happy, content kid! We spent the night in the short-stay unit of the hospital. It was much better than I expected it would be. There was a bed for me and a comfy chair to hold and rock Jax, so it was alright  Plus, I was actually relieved to have the monitors there, especially after the spells. So – we did it!

The next time we have to think about surgery will be in a few months when we begin the process of the hypospadias repair. Jax will have to be on injections to help prepare his body for the surgery. The actual surgery will take place when he’s about a year old. The same surgeon that did the hernia surgery will also do that surgery. We really like him; he’s very soft-spoken, confident, and explains things well. You can learn more about Dr. Wolpert here, if you wish.

Now, Jax is healing at home. He’s in some pain, but Tylenol is doing the job. He’s getting lots of extra loving from mama and daddy!