Theo's Operation / Other Stuff

Theo had his operation on Saturday.  I'd been stressing about it for probably the month leading up to it, I mean I know it was such as simple basic thing but the thought of putting the little fella under aesthetic freaked me right out.  It doesn't seem right, he's so little!  Anyway it all went fine, of course.

Saturday morning the time finally came, Theo got up and I just avoided giving him breakfast without saying anything.  He didn't notice either, which is sort of normal for the weekend, usually I'm asking them 62 times to sit down and eat something, so I guess they were both enjoying not being harassed to eat.  Theo's iPad was ready to be picked up from the shop for its replacement (it's Peter old iPad Air and it needed a new battery) so I took him into town to pick up with its new battery.  He was really happy to do this, glad to have "my own iPad" though I've tried to stress that it's OUR iPad and he's allowed to use it.  I'm sure that'll have sunk in...  Once back in the car he was happily playing on it while we drove home.  We talked about going into Hospital today and he knew he was, he was a bit nervous about it but not too bothered.  Once at home we gave him a shower (as we'd been told) and then plonked him in front of the TV.  About 10:30am they rang and said they didn't want him at 11am, they wanted him at 12pm instead because they were running late.  This is about the time Theo suddenly realised he was starving and was very upset that we wouldn't give him anything to eat, just a little bit of water.  Still the TV is a great distraction and while he was annoyed he soon got lost in the science of making slime that was on the TV.

Finally about 11:30 we got all packed up and into the car and headed out to hospital.  We talked to Theo again about was going to happen, Sarah helped to calm him down by telling him a game to play at the hospital. He had to quietly, by squeezing Sarah's hand, point out anything he thought was a "helper robot".  It was a great idea!  We got to the hospital and went into the day surgery ward, the waiting room had a big chalk area and a play table, so Theo spent his waiting time playing with that until we were checked in.  Once checked in Theo squeezed Sarah's hand and quietly pointed to a blood pressure machine in the corner and we all agreed that yes, that was definitely a helper robot!

Then the nurse came around and we got him into his gown with the "Butt hanging out" which he was pretty impressed with, they gave him an iPad to play with though we soon gave that back and gave him the iPad we'd bought, their iPad had lots of naff games on it that all wanted you to pay money to upgrade.  Eventually the time came for him to wheel him away into theatre, about 2 hours after we'd arrived.  Only one parent was allowed to take him to "settle" in theatre, I wanted Sarah to do it because I knew I would hate it.  I waved him goodbye and told him I'd see him soon.  I went to the cafe and Sarah met me only 20 minutes later, saying that it had been pretty horrible, they basically had to hold him down to put the mask on him, and then when it was on and he started breathing the gas he just suddenly went totally limp.  It was all very horrible, but quite normal and to be expected.

Anyway then we just had to wait around, we stayed in the cafe for a bit until it closed and then waited back in the waiting room.  After what seemed like 3 hours but was probably only about 1 and a half they called us back in, I thought we'd meet him in the recovery room but we didn't he was already back in the ward and was sucking on an iceblock.  Very zonked out, but not too upset.  Just dazed.  He kept running his finger over the bump on his hand where the needle was stuck into his vein.  We gave him a gentle cuddle and told him we loved him etc etc and he dozed back off to sleep.  The nurse brought around some yoghurt for him and I went and bought him a banana from the cafe.  When I got back though he was fast asleep, so we just waited by the bed for him to wake up. The anaesthetist came by, then the surgeon and both said it had gone really well, no problems or concerns.  Then they said "Well, you'd better wake him and and be off!" which I was a bit surprised about, you'd think they'd let him keep sleeping.  But no.  So we woke him up and carried him off, he had to have a little chunder just as we were leaving the ward so we returned for a clean up and a take two.  Took him home and got him into bed, I went around and collected Beth from Peter and Mary's (big thanks to them for looking after her for the day)

He was pretty good at home, hungry so we gave him some more food, but then he hurped that up too.  Eventually we got him off to sleep, but he woke up about 1:30am screaming about how much he hurt, took a while but in the end I figured he was actually just hungry.  He wanted Cheese on Toast so I made him that and settled down on the bed next to him to keep him company in case he woke up again.  But when he woke up Sunday morning he was, pretty much, back to his usual self.  We took the big plaster off him yesterday after his shower and, while he HATED that we had to take it off, he was pretty good about it and the wound looks like it's healing up just fine.

So that's it, that's that ordeal over and done with, I'm glad that everything is sorted out for him and that it's done and dusted and we don't have to worry about it anymore.

Friday they came and re-did the plumbing, Adrian got a couple of his boys to come over and finished digging the ditch for me.  Only took them a couple of hours, so that was good.  Plumbing is all redone now, not very exciting but another item ticked off.

School's finished for the year!  We went to the cushion concert last week, same as last year at Pettigrew Arena and almost impossible to hear anything!  They mumble into the mics and the audio quality is a nightmare.  Anyway we all just clapped when we thought we were supposed to.

Last week Sarah went up to Auckland for a few days - I just worked from home because it was easier to drop the kids off at school, get back home and work upstairs, then collect them again at 3pm.

That's about it - the main thing I wanted to write about was Theo's op.  So glad it's over and done with.

Tim