surgery day...

Yesterday was the big day for Cannon's surgery. He had to have his right testicle repaired. The procedure is called a right orchiopexy. I don't know if it is like this in other areas (it wasn't in Idaho), but here in Utah they don't tell you the time of your surgery until the day before because they set-up the schedule according to age. I was thinking we would be fairly early and of course was hoping we would be since Cannon couldn't eat after midnight the night before. So, I was pretty surprised when they told us not to get to the hospital until 11:45. I tried to keep Cannon preoccupied the best I could, but he was in the kitchen pointing at the cabinets and saying "more, more, more". Aww, so sad!

As you can see, he was getting pretty desperate on the way to the hospital...

Once we got there I gave them my insurance information for the 56th time and Cannon got his snazzy pj's for the day. These are very special pajamas because they have a tracking device in them. There are marked areas in the hospital the kids must stay inside of or an alarm goes off. Isn't that cool? We are lucky to have a brand new children's hospital by us and it is beautiful.
He HATED that arm band. He picked and pulled at it all day.
In the pre-op waiting room.
We were thrilled when we got there to learn that the doctor was an hour behind. Which actually ended up being 3.5 hours behind. Cannon found a way to pass the time....
He did SOOOO good. Once at the hospital he never asked for anything to eat and he was very happy to play with the toys in the waiting room. He was great for the entire 3.5 hours. About 15 minutes prior to going to anesthesia they gave him some versed to help him relax and induce short term amnesia so he would not remember the procedure or being taken away from us. During that 15 minutes he was not allowed to walk so I took him for a ride around the hospital in the wagon.
Getting his temperature and pulse taken one last time.
He was a charmer to the nurses. They all loved him and were constantly checking on him in the waiting room. They played games with him and read stories to him. You could tell they really love their job.
Then the medicine really kicked in and he was chiiiiillll.
Then he was taken off and we were sent to another waiting room. The procedure took about an hour and the doctor said everything went great. They usually have to make 2 incisions, but he only had to make one on Cannon. They called right away and said he was starting to wake up and I could go back to comfort him (only one parent could go at first). Then we got moved to another post-op area. Cannon started to wake up a little more and he was really, really mad. He tried to get the blood pressure cuff off his leg and when he couldn't move it, he lost it. I knew right away he was going to hold his breath. His monitors started beeping and the nurse and I were trying so hard to get him to breathe. She yanked him from my lap put him up on the bed. They had the oxygen turned on full blast and he was not responding. His back was arched and he had his head thrown back and he was very blue. He did not look good at all. Soon there were 6 nurses surrounding him all trying to get him to breathe. He took one huge breath and then panicked and quit breathing again. This time for a shorter period and then he snapped out of it. I kept thinking he was going to go into seizure again. I am not sure why he didn't because he was not breathing for a lot longer period than the time he did have the seizure. It took him a while (with a few more small breath holding incidents) to get calmed down. He was very hoarse from the breathing tube. He just sounded and looked miserable. After this the nurse said we were going to have to stay longer than usual to be sure he was going to be okay.

This was after the big breath holding event.

Right before all the action happened, they told Eric he was doing great and it was okay for him to come back and see him. He headed to room 1 as they told him and he walked in just as all the nurses were rushing. He turned around and walked out because he thought he must be in the wrong room since he was told his son was doing great. He confirmed room 1 and came back in just as Cannon started to breathe again. He didn't see me the first time, but this time he spotted me in the corner. I was crying and trying to keep it together. It is so crazy to be sitting back watching your child go through something like that and all you can do is pray.
He was very irritable so they gave him some juice. He sucked it down in record time and wanted more. Then they gave him some milk and some pain medication. We had to wait another hour just to be sure everything was good.
The nurse took him on another wagon ride to kill some time.
Then his spirits picked up and we were allowed to go. They gave us some crackers for the road.
And then about 5 minutes after I took this picture, he threw-up everywhere. All over himself, the carseat and the car. It was not pretty. It was so bad in fact we decided to just throw out the carseat and buy another one. He had some gatorade when we got home and then he was out for the night.

Overall, the little patient is doing pretty good today. He is still pretty crabby which they told us to expect for a day or two. He is a little loopy on the pain medicine. His pupils are dialated and his balance is off. He has been walking in to the walls and falling a lot. His incision area looks terribly painful. It is hard to look at. I can't imagine what it must feel like for the poor guy.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow and a fast recovery. I am so proud of him. Honestly, I could have done without the breath holding scare, but other than that he did so great.

Love you Mr. Cannon. Mommy is sorry you had to go through this but you are a total rockstar.