Our day consisted of hurry up and wait. Today was Cooper's surgery and as anyone who has been a patient will tell you, it always consists of hurrying to wait. We were scheduled to arrive at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center no later than 9:30am. Cooper was able to nurse as late as 7am thankfully, and was showing no signs of hunger upon arrival. We were triaged and taken to our room where they went through his medical history and obtained his vital signs. Everyone that works at Children's (those that we came in contact with) are so enjoyable to be around. You can tell they love what they do and strive to make each child's experience as positive as possible. We met with anesthesia and the urologist performing his procedure and were informed that surgery would begin "promptly" at 11:08am, last 83 minutes from start to finish and not go over 12:24pm! Talk about precision. Zach was counting down the minutes until they would come and whisk Cooper away and I reminded him that we were on hospital time- where everything happens an hour later than scheduled.
At 11:30am the surgical nurse came to take Cooper. We were able to walk him to the operating room doors and give him "night night" kisses as we handed him off to the anesthesiologist. This must have been the hardest part for us. Leaving our child with a room full of people he does not know, to be intubated and put to sleep. Only to wake up confused, in pain, surrounded by a room full of more people he's not familiar with. Tears filled my eyes as the doors closed and I watched my baby stare me down, wondering where his mommy and daddy were going.
We sat in same day surgery waiting where there is a strange sense of "family." Although we are blessed to have a child that is "healthy as a horse", as one doctor put it, we were nonetheless in the same boat as all the other concerned family members. In that moment I scanned the room, studying each person with wonder. A woman approached us to ask what our son was having done, and I vaguely explained Cooper's procedure. She replied that her 18 year old son was having a kidney removed and started to cry. We wished her and her family well as she took a seat. It was at that moment that I remembered just how blessed we really are. Here I was, carrying guilt for having my 6 month old in surgery for something that he will never remember, while she was waiting on her son to have a kidney removed. The next time I studied the faces in the room, I looked closer and realized there were much larger issues being faced than what we were going through. Blessed is an understatement.
Once out of surgery we met with the urologist who informed us that everything went as planned and Cooper would be waking up shortly. We met Cooper in the recovery area and held him as he slept.
Our day was eventful and filled with stress and anxiety, but it was just that- one day. I have the utmost respect for those parenting a chronically ill child. The bravery that you must exemplify for not only your child, but also your family while going through something so drastic is exhausting to say the least.
