Surgery day

Surgery day was extremely stressful. I think I handled it okay enough considering I only had two breakdowns. We got to primary children's at 9 am to get Max registered. He didn't want to wear the hospital clothes they gave him so we ended up just letting him wear his pj's.  They gave him versed to help him calm down while we were in the waiting room. It didn't work so great on him. He still just wanted to run around and play with the toys and ride the bike down the hall.  When it was time for him to go back for surgery, we could only follow him to the end of the hall and then we had to give our hugs and kisses and watch him run down the hall with the doctor to the OR. That's when I had my first breakdown. Afterwards, Nate and I went to a different waiting room and had to check in so that we could get updates from the OR. We got lunch, and I had another breakdown, and then we waited...and waited...and waited. It was kind of agonizing, but they did call us half way through with an update that everything was going well. Around 3:30 they finally finished and we went back to the recovery room. He was still sleeping, only waking for a few seconds to cry that he hurt. Once they got through taking his vitals, they sent us all up to his room he'd stay in for the rest of the time. Thankfully, it is a bigger room with a shower. Nobody wants a stinky mom, and I'm not leaving his side to go home. He slept most of the day, waking up every so often crying that he hurts. They put an epidural in his back to help control the pain, but they ended up having to up the dosage to get on top of it. He did okay during the night. He had a low grade fever most of the night, but nothing serious. In the morning, he woke up and we watched cartoons together and he was allowed to have some juice. He went for a really short walk, got a sponge bath, and had his bedding changed. Then, grandma and grandpa Clement came to visit with Sam. Max was so happy to see his big brother and even got to play trains and cars with him for a few minutes. He went for another walk and got some gas out, but threw up a little too. Now he's in bed and getting much needed rest to help his body heal. I'm doing a lot better today knowing that the surgery is over and went well. Now I can focus on just getting him better and ready for chemo. I love this boy so much. It breaks my heart that he has to go through this. I wish I could just take it away from him. And again, I'm blown away by all the support everyone has shown. We are so grateful.

 He sure loves his doggies. He makes them all kiss him better every so often.

Here, you can see on his tummy where they took out the tumor and on his left chest is where they inserted the port. It breaks my heart to see my baby all cut up.

Max had a blast on the tricycle while he was waiting to go back for surgery.

Sam came to visit the day after surgery and loved the Spiderman statue.