We’re home! Surgery is over!

We are so happy to be home!! I sent an email out to my family today with the following update on my sweet little man…

Justin getting his vitals checked pre-surgery…

Surgery started Wednesday morning around 9 and was done about noon. Dr. Holmes (Justin’s urologist) made a 3+ inch incision just under his left side rib cage and WOW it looks big on Justin's little body! Justin also has what is called a penrose drain coming out of his side that will be there for the next 2 weeks. It is to make sure all of the urine is removed from the kidney while the kidney and ureter heal up. The doctor talked to us when he finished surgery letting us know that everything went as planned. I got to finally go in and see Justin around 1:30 when he was just waking up from the anesthesia--he was ready to eat as soon as he saw me! He hadn't been able to eat since midnight the night before and was starving! Miraculously, he didn't cry once between midnight and 9am when we handed him over to the doctor. Typically, he would have screamed his head off around 3am wanting to eat and then again around 5:30/6:00am. We truly feel like we were blessed in that regard. Although he did still wake up at 3, he was a squealy happy little guy and Alan played with him until almost 4am when he finally fell asleep again. We had decided I wasn't allowed to go near him after his last feeding since I am his main food source.

After we met up with Justin we were taken to our room where he slept for the first couple of hours while he slept off the drugs in his body.

Justin and I spent the night in the hospital and as you might imagine, it was not the most restful night of sleep we've ever had. We shared a room with a little 21 month old who had a few 45 minute crying spells...poor little guy has something wrong with his feet/legs and has been in casts since he was newborn. Knowing this helped me be a lot more compassionate of the crying. I'm guessing I got no more than 2 1/2 hours of sleep on a fold out, super hard chair/bed that liked to bend in two if I sat down on it just right--imagine me being snapped shut like an oyster and you'll pretty much understand how I felt. Good times. Justin actually did fairly well considering all his little body went through. He only had a couple of crying/screaming fits and I was able to calm him down within 5-10 minutes. He ate really well all night/morning which helped us get home as quickly as we did. The requirements for us going home was that he had to pee on his own (no catheter, which he was hooked up to all night), no fever (only slight one last night), eat well, and then the incision and drain had to be approved by the doctor.

Everything looked good and we were discharged earlier this afternoon. Thankfully we are home now and Justin and Alan are currently sleeping in the glider in Justin's room. I should be sleeping too, but I wanted to get an update out before letting my head hit the pillow.

We are so grateful for your prayers. We are thankful to our Heavenly Father who looked over our little Justin and kept him safe during surgery.

Now here’s to a quick and speedy recovery!! And a good night’s rest would be super awesome too! Not gonna happen, but I can dream! :)