The Hate Popsicle

The drive to the surgery center was better than expected. The snow was falling and the roads weren't the best but it was early enough that traffic wasn't much of a hindrance. We arrived right on time- 7 a.m. Filled out papers, played in the little waiting area. Go back into his "room." The TV is on, there is a load of kid books. We do the intake stuff with the nurse. Did I mention that staph infection came back on Monday? It did. There was a smidge of concern that they wouldn't be able to proceed because of it... but since the doctor wasn't going to be cutting, the concern wasn't valid. We were on track. We waited. 8:00 came and went. Waited, waited. 8:30... still waiting. Finally, around 8:40, the doctor came in to check in with us and talk about what was coming up. "We're just going in to look. See if there is any webbing or anything that is causing this issue. If we find anything, we'll..." This is where he suddenly went into slow motion and things became panicky for me. "... take a sample for a biopsy." Biopsy?? No one had said anything about biopsies or there even being anything that could need a biopsy!! The doc leaves and we get Zach into the little hospital gown. I start talking to him a little about what is going to happen. A nice nurse, Connie, came in. She'd be taking Zach back to surgery and she would be with him the entire time. She asked if we were ready- offered to carry Zach or he could ride on the bed... I had spied a little wagon in the hallway and asked if he could go in that. I knew that would make it fun for him... less of a battle. Connie went to get him a warm blanket and he toddled off into the hall after her- eager to get to that wagon. All the nurses wear purple scrubs... Zach went after the first pair of purple legs he found... hoping they would take him to the wagon. It was pretty cute. Got him settled into the wagon with his blanket... and off he went... around the corner with a serious and uncertain look on his face, but no tears, no fighting. Jeff and I went to the waiting room. Had some hot chocolate. Jeff read his book, listened to his iPod. I plugged into my Zen and watched part of an episode of Torchwood. And we waited. About 40 minutes later, the doctor came out. Said there was nothing wrong inside. Spouted off a bunch of biological medical terms... but bottom line was that each kidney is working properly and dumping properly, there are no growths or webbing in the bladder, everything is connected and working. His urethra is too small (where the pee comes out). So the doctor made an incision. And some stitches. And when he's all healed, he will be normal sized. What had happened these few times of blood in the urine... the urine came out forcefully, pushed open the too small urethra and it snapped back shut and would bleed a little from the force. We waited a few more minutes and a nurse came out to bring us back. Said we could wait with him while he slept. She said he'd sleep like that for a bit but there was no reason for us to not be with him. We'd already been told he'd be out for 60-90 minutes. I stroked his hair and kissed him a bunch. He was awake in about 15 minutes. Woke up and wanted his thumb- had to get the nurse to remove the monitor thingee so he could get that comfort object into his mouth. Sat up and the nurse brought him a popsicle, some ice water. He was very happy about the popsicle and chugged a bunch of the water. As he chomped away on the popsicle, I noticed the stick had writing on it... see? write by his hand... HATE The popsicle said "HATE?" What the...?

After the popsicle, he slurped down an applesauce and then we were on our way home. We stopped to fill the prescription for Tylenol with codeine (yay for insurance- it only cost $.33) and loaded up on cottage cheese and yogurt for Zach.

Came home... and took a nap. That morning wiped me out.

Now we have to watch how he plays (no straddling toys, no rough housing) and we have to put neosporin on his penis with each diaper change. I also have cream that I'm using for the rash- but if that isn't significantly better by tomorrow, that's going to be another trip to the doctor.

Thank you for the prayers, comments, e-mails, and Facebook messages. It meant so much to know that so many were pulling for us and thinking of our little buddy.