S' Surgery Update

Thank you to those of you who prayed for S yesterday, commented on our blog, and sent us emails/text messages. We really appreciate it! We went to Vanderbilt yesterday around 1:00 PM. They took us back quickly, and we were able to talk to the opthamologist, urology residents assisting the urologist, and anesthesist about the procedures. I think they each asked us what was being done to S, which became kind of funny--I guess this is just for double checking to make sure we understand what is happening and that they do the procedures we expect. We put him in the Vanderbilt p.j.'s, which looked like a little karate outfit! He was very happy and had no idea what was coming his way! One of ministers from the church I grew up at in Jackson, TN (who now lives in Nashville and is a minister at my parent's church here) came to pray with us before the procedure. We really appreciated this, and fortunately I held it together until they took him from us to take him for surgery. As they took him back, they said we could leave the surgery area for about 30 minutes, and as soon as we got back, they called us to the room to meet with the opthamologist. He said things went very well and gave us instructions for taking care of his eyes. Then, we had to wait what seemed like a long time for the urologist to come back. Fortunately, Michael's mom was with us at that point, so talking with her helped to pass the time. Finally, the urologist came back to meet with us and tell us things went fine. After that, we were told S was awake and ready for us to come back. He was attached to lots of tubes when we got back and was kind of whimpering. He slept off and on while I held him for about an hour and a half. They gave him pain medicine a couple of times, and once he seemed okay, they let us leave. We got home about 7 PM, and he slept off and on all evening. We kept him downstairs with us as he slept and then moved him to his bed. He slept until 5AM and woke up hurting a little. The pain medicine helped, and he finally went back to sleep for a little while. Then, he woke up smiling. We have not seen many smiles since before the surgery, so this was nice. This morning we've been dealing with bloody tears and a bloody nose (due to the eye surgery), some fussing with diaper changes, and putting medicines on all of his booboos, but overall his demeanor is pretty cheerful--not sure if it is the strong pain medicine in his system :) or if he feels better, but we'll take it! Here are a few pictures from yesterday and this morning:

Vanderbilt's Karate P.J.'s (pre-surgery)

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Eyes are marked for surgery-it looked like they drew on eyebrows!

This morning with his red eyes!