This morning Jake and I were up at 4:30 a.m. to take Nathan up to Primary Children's for his total cleft palate repair and to have the eye doctor implant draining tubes into Nathan's tear ducts. We known since Nathan was 3 months old that these eyes would have to be taken care of, but we put it off because of other, more pressing surgeries. Since we are pushing not to have any more surgeries for a while (pushing off the hernia and the tonsils/adenoids) this is our last chance to combine that with another surgery. There has been some research done to show that children who have been under anesthesia multiple times before age 4 can have some learning disabilities. This may or may not be the case with Nathan, but I'd just as soon combine the few things that we can when we can.
The eye doctor just came in to talk to us. He did have to dilate open the tear ducts, but Nathan has a fistula that may need more involved work later if his eyes don't clear up. Other than that, his part of the operation was very straight forward and easy.
I hate having to sit in the surgical waiting room, especially when our child is never a quick in and out and 3 sets of parents have already been able to leave in the 45 minutes since we've been here. The surgery should last between 3-4 hours if all goes well. I also hate bringing a baby who isn't "sick" this time around. I mean, yes, that cleft has to be taken care of, but it was almost easier in a way to hand him over for heart surgery because he wasn't growing, was turning blue when he cried, and I knew he was slowly suffocating. A cleft is not a life or death operation. However, we will get to spend tonight and maybe tomorrow in the PICU and then a couple of days on the infant surgical medical unit.
I have to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to Ben & Tammy for taking Elisabeth and having her sleep over last night and watching her today. We couldn't ask for better friends than them!
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