The Big Day

Before I get to the big day, I will post about yesterday.  Brenden started the day with this:

Then we went to the Aquarium in downtown Seattle.

There is a floating bridge in Seattle, which we think they need to duplicate across the water to Anchorage for us.

The aquarium is along a pier and goes out over the water.

The first thing we did was watch the octopus being fed.

Then we were attacked by the octopus - I guess they didn't feed her enough.

Nemo and Dori

Jennifer and Brenden

A 3000 pound shark was caught off of the Washington coast.  They froze it and made this replica.

Brenden caught me!

We liked these tiny sharks.

Jelly-man

Those are jellyfish in the circle.

Brenden wanted SO badly to go to the space needle after they talked about it in school.  When I looked on the website, I discovered that there is a $35 minimum order per person.  I knew it would be too expensive, but I wasn't expecting a minimum order.  We drove by it a few times, but as Jen stopped to get gas, I hopped out to take this picture.  I asked Brenden if he wanted to jump out of the car and look and he said, "No, I'll just look at my postcard..."

On to the big day:

Brenden checked in for surgery this morning at 6:20.  He was NOT happy about it - I practically had to drag him into the hospital.  The other day when Brenden wanted to go to the Space Needle and I told him it was too expensive, he informed me that he wasn't going to have surgery because it was "too expensive."  He learns quickly!

Unhappy and scared for surgery

After a little relaxing medicine.

The medicine is starting to settle in a little bit.

And then he got REALLY silly, but he said, "I am SO EXCITED for surgery!"  At least that was an improvement.  I showed Jen the videos I took and she said, "That is NOT the boy we left you with this morning.  He is so high!"  He really enjoyed practicing breathing with this mask - it is bubble gum scented, so the air smells pretty darn good.  Mostly he just sang through it at the top of his lungs.

I had to dress up to take Brenden to the OR.

The nurse told me to put all of this on, including the mask.  The anesthesiologist told me I didn't have to wear the mask, so I took it off.  We went in the OR and the nurse told me to put it on because there was sterilized equipment in the room.  I put it on.  The doctor told me to take it off so I didn't scare Brenden.  I took it off, but left it sitting on my forehead.  Another nurse came by and gently tapped the mask with her fingertip, so I put it back on.  Then the anesthesiologist and the doctor together said, "She doesn't have to wear that!"  They had a little debate for a minute until the nurse discovered I was "mom" and they all came to the general consensus that I didn't have to wear it after all.  By this point, it was time for me to leave the room anyway.  Brenden's surgery started at 7:42.

This is the screen in the waiting room.  I felt like I was waiting for a plane to arrive so I could pick up my passenger.  The lines say things like "patient in surgical prep" and "surgery started" and "patient in post-op recovery."
Waiting for Brenden to wake up.
Wake-up #1.

Around 9:30, Brenden started to stir a little bit and the nurses immediately started bugging him to eat.  They told me to call my ride and be ready to go.  I sat there patiently and told them I wasn't planning to go anywhere anytime soon.  Brenden started to try to touch his ear and pull his IV out.  He was confused about why he couldn't sit up or move and was very disoriented.  He took about 3 licks on a popsicle and then promptly vomited 3 times.  Eventually they gave him some nausea medication, but still pushed me to get ready to go.  Last time, we felt like we were shoved out the hospital doors before we were ready to go and this time I was going to stand my ground and not go anywhere until we were sure we were ready to go.

Wake-up #2.

Brenden slept for another 3 hours and woke around 12:45.  During those 3 hours of sleep, the nurses tried really hard to wake him up and it really bugged me.  Finally I told them I was hanging out in the hospital until HE told me that he was ready to go and that I would come find a nurse if we needed anything.  He woke up much happier and more coherent.  He ate 2 popsicles and 2 cups of jello.  I called Jen to pick us up and got Brenden dressed.  After she was on her way, Brenden decided he didn't feel well and he was really dizzy.  The nurses had already gained their hope that he was leaving and they weren't about to turn back that hope.

I really wanted to wait and post a "right implant" and "left implant" incision picture, but I don't have the other one on my computer.  I will have to do that later.  BUT, here is the left.  Tiny, huh?  No hair shaving, no stitches, no bandages.  It is very swollen and sore looking though.  I need to take an hour by hour shot or something because it looks much more sore now and it is starting to stick out like a monkey ear.
This is how terrible Brenden felt when they discharged him.

Brenden threw up A LOT in the car on the way back to Jen's and then fell asleep.  I hauled him in the house and he went back to sleep for a few more hours.  He tried to eat some bread and apple juice and immediately started crying about his stomach hurting, so he is currently being distracted by cartoons.  I will update when I have something more for you!