Ryan, the trooper

Ryan was such a trooper today. We woke him at around 4:30 and put him immediately in the car to drive to the hospital. Checkin was at 5:30. I was sure he was going to scream the whole way since he's used to having his milk first thing, but he talked himself right back to sleep. When we arrived at the hospital we were immediately taken back to the "holding" room. Ryan was all smiles. He looked adorable in his hospital gown, and I think he knew it! He loved his new bed and explored every inch of it, including the little screws which he was amazed by for some reason. The nurse came around and attached his arm bracelet (but to his leg so he wouldn't notice it-yeah, right!) and then an orderly took us back to the surgery holding area. There' s probably a term for that, but I can't think of it right now! Ryan was beginning to get a bit fussy, well.. a lot fussy, and thankfully fussed himself back to sleep again for a while.

Just as I layed him in the crib to give my arms a break, the nurse came in with his "silly juice". They give this to all the little ones to help with the transition from mommy. We woke Ryan up and he gulped it down like it was chocolate! Within about 15 minutes the fun really began! Ryan was such a hoot! He was giving the wall "kisses" and laughing like there was no tomorrow! He'd smile real slow and fall to the side.. he was like a drunk little one year old! Too cute! Soon after that the nurse came and took him back to surgery.

Rick and I went to the waiting room and sat patiently for what seemed like an eternity. After about an hour, we finally got a call from the operating room telling us they had not started the surgery yet because they couldn't find a vein to start the IV in. I noticed after the surgery that he had over 20 different needle pricks all over him. Poor thing. They finally found a place right on the inside of his upper thigh. Thankfully he wasn't awake during any of this, so he doesn't remember a thing. Hopefully he's not too sore from it. The dr. came out into the waiting room around 9:15 and said that Ryan had done wonderfully, but that he did have to take out his adnoids as well. He was also already getting another ear infection, so he had to drain some extra fluid out of his right ear as well. Poor baby.

We then went back to the post-op to see him. He was just coming out of anestesia and boy was that heartbreaking. I just held and rocked him until he fell back asleep. We sat there for about 20 minutes and then went back to the recovery room for about an hour. He slept through that and all the way, and pretty much all the rest of the day until around 3:00. He started coming out of it by then and began to play. By 4:30 he was scooting around on his John Deer tractor and by supper he downed a whole hotdog! I guess you could say he was about 95% back to normal.

I'm so thankful that this is all over and everything went smoothly. Thank you for all the prayers and words of wisdom. It's all greatly appreciated and well used!