On Thursday, November 12 you had your Left Laparoscopic Orchiopexy with Inguinal Hernia Repair performed by Doctor Robert DeFoor.
On Wednesday I had to take you to Dr. Bobinski (your pediatrician) for your Pre-Procedure Physical Exam.
On Thursday we woke up around 6:15am, and left the house around 7am. We had to be at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center by 7:30am to check you in for surgery.
We all got big ol’ red sticker to wear.
We filled out some paperwork, got your temp, weight and you donned a “peach” gown.
Sorry buddy it was pink not peach. Oh well, win some lose some.
The nurse took your blood pressure, your oxygen levels and asked us a bunch of questions.
You loved it haha. Actually you did really well for not having your morning bottle. You weren’t allowed to have anything 4 hours prior to your surgery. In hinesight your mom and I should have woken you up around 1am and given you a bottle.
Around 8:30am the anesthesiology nurse came in. Asked a bunch of questions and left.
We waited for another hour and fifteen minutes. Your surgery was scheduled for 8:30am, but they were running a good hour behind. Finally they came and we walked back with you. Then the time came for us to hand you off to the doctors. It SUCKED. We both almost cried. Just thinking about it now I want to cry. We weren’t scared that something was going to go wrong… well that’s a lie. Of course we were scared! It’s a surgery. Even though you were at the best children’s hospital in the nation, we couldn’t not think about something going wrong. The other thing that scared us was you not knowing what was going on.
One of the nurses took us out to the waiting room where we sat and stared at the monitor that showed your status. You were assigned a 6 digit ID number 686042.
Peach meant you were in the operating room and green meant you were in Post-Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU). Your surgery only lasted about an hour and a half, but it felt like hours. Finally they called us into a small room where Dr. DeFoor came in and said everything went great. They had found your missing ball! It was healthy and they brought it on down. A matching set. Woohoo!! Dr. DeFoor showed us some pictures of your innards.
Upper Left: through the hole you can see a bit of white. That is your missing testicle. They pulled that through that hole and stiched it to the bottom of your scrotom (picture to come).
Upper Right: your healthy right side of your scrotum.
Lower Left: your stomach.
Lower Right: the top is your liver, then your gallbladder and then a part of your intestine.
After about 10-15 minutes you woke up, and we were allowed to come back and see you. You were crabby, but we didn’t care. You were alive and well. Mom sat with you and gave you a bottole while the nurse went over what was to be expected for the next day or so. You were going to be tired, and possibly crabby, which you were tired but not that crabby.
Here’s what your downstairs looked like after the surgery.
You can’t see, but the camera went in through your belly button. Then the upper right is where they put in another instrument to maneuver your testicle into your scrotum and stiched it in place.
Most kids have the fear that their parents are going to crack open the family photo album and show their prom date the dreaded naked baby in the bathtub photo. Not your parents buddy. We will have the photo above with the disspointed emoticon over your penis. Oh how lucky you are.
Love you buddy,
Mom and Dad