Thursday afternoon (3/25) we went to Shriner's for our pre-surgery appointment. We filled out all of the necessary paperwork, got all of his stats (weight, height, etc.) and talked with the nurse about basic surgery info. We were then supposed to meet with our surgeon and the anesthesiologist to discuss the details of Israel's surgery. Well, we then found out that our surgeon wasn't going to be in that day to meet with us, but would meet with us in the morning before his surgery. However we needed to wait and talk with the anesthesiologist still. He was currently in a surgery so they said it would be a little while...well after 2 more hours of waiting (We had already been there an hour) I went and checked in on things, they called up to the anesthesiologist and he said he would be at least another hour! We had all three kiddos with us and it was nearing dinner time and Izzy was WAY over due for a nap...so we left. They said we could just talk with him in the morning. Sure wish we could have had this option earlier! Oh well!
We drove to my sisters house (about 30 minutes from Shriner's) and stayed the night. We left Rachel and Jaxon there for a few days (My sister and her husband are amazing! And my kids just love them!). Israel was only allowed to have food until midnight, but could have clear liquids until 5:00am. He drank a bottle at 8:00pm, just before bed. I tried waking him up in the night to get him to drink another one and he wanted NOTHING to do with it. To bad he didn't understand why I would want him to do this. He slept the rest of the night, peacefully.
We woke up early on Friday (3/26)and got Izzy up too. My thought was, just stick him in the car in his PJ's as soon as it's time to go and he can sleep on the way over. And did he sleep? NOPE! He was wide awake talking and as happy as can be...at 6:00am! Well we arrived at Shriner's at 6:30am. We got checked into Israel's room, did the basic stuff and then we waited. Amazingly since Shriner's is a children's hospital they were very accommodating. When we got into Izzy's room his bed was covered with a soft fleece handmade blanket (You know, instead of the boring white blankets). They also had a handmade pillow case for him draped over the edge of the bed. In addition, they had a mobile attached to his crib, which he really liked. And lastly, they had a brand new toy in the box for Israel that he LOVED! You know...it's the little things like this that make the difference in your experience.
Israel's surgery was scheduled for 8:00am. However they were running behind. At 8:15 they came in our room and gave Israel some "Goofy Juice" as they call it. It basically gives him temporary amnesia and totally relaxes him so he isn't afraid and doesn't fight them. He drank it up and right away it started taking effect. It was quite funny actually :-) Around 8:45 they took us down to the "holding room" where we waited to send him back to surgery. The people down there we so nice and sweet. They pulled out 4 stuffed bears and let Israel pick one out to take to surgery with him. He picked the brown one, and preceded to chew on it's ear...cute! At 9:00 they took him from our arms and back into the operating room. I was sad to see him go, but I tell you what, the power of God is so amazing and I could literally feel all of the prayers being said for Israel and us and I was surprisingly calm and relaxed.
We left our cell phone number with the surgery desk gal and she called us along the way with any details so we didn't have to just sit and wait. Jon and I walked over to OHSU and got some breakfast. During breakfast we got a call that surgery had just started at 9:30 and everything was going well. After that we walked over to Doernbecher's and got ourselves a Starbucks coffee. We got another call at 10:30 that Israel was done in surgery and was heading to the recovery room! At 10:45 we got our last call that he was ready for us! We got in and held him right away. He had a very hard time coming off the anesthesia and other drugs. He was very upset and confused. Although we found he enjoyed being help closely and being sang to. We had planned to stay the night, but Israel was doing SO well our doctor sent us home at 2:30 the afternoon!!! God is SO good!
We are home now and enjoying being here instead of the hospital. Israel is doing as good as can be expected. He is still cranky and obviously in pain, but we are keeping his meds going on a regular basis and that really seems to help. More updates to come later on as time allows :-) This post took me a whole day to finish as I only seem to have a few moments at a time. Thank you again for all of your continued prayers. We cherish them!
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