Grommets #2

Watching the city traffic go past

On Sunday, Felix and I drove to the city to prepare for his surgery early on Monday morning. Thankfully there were no issues with the car, and we made it safely. Felix was thankful to be out of the car and enjoyed exploring our apartment, and looking out the window at the cars and trucks.

Joel, Mel and Noah came for a visit, which was great, but Felix hid in the kitchen from Noah, occasionally peeking around the corner with a smile. Felix was fascinated with Noah's new pair of slippers and, when Noah went into the bedroom for a sleep, Felix sat and tried to put them on his feet. With a little bit of help, he put the slippers on and didn't take them off all afternoon. I have looked everywhere to find slippers that will stay on Felix's feet, and ones he really liked but haven't been able to find any. I was very happy when Joel suggested going to the store, the next day, to buy a pair for Felix. When he saw his new slippers after his surgery, he put them on and didn't take them off even at bed time. He woke up the next morning with very warm toes!

Listening to some tunes before surgery

Monday morning was a very early start but, for once, Felix slept in and I actually had to wake him up. Felix had to fast from dinner time the night before so, with my stomach grumbling, I went without food or a drink as well. I would have felt pretty mean eating in front of him. We arrived at the hospital for the 7am check in and got in line with all the other families. When the Nurse came to go through the details of the surgery with me, she asked if I had accommodation for the night in the city. I had previously asked, over the phone, if I would be able to drive the four hours home after the surgery and they said I could. She told me very quickly that there was no way I would be able to drive with him, and we had to stay within an hour of the hospital until the next morning. Thankfully, I was able to book another night; inconvenient, but safer for the little guy. After that, we had a long wait, Felix wasn't first on the list and didn't get called until 11am.

Felix wasn't too happy when I put on my blue gown, hat and booties to go into theatre with him while he was put to sleep. He kept trying to pull my hat off. After a while I realised that he wanted his own hat, which he proudly managed to put on his head all by himself! We finally got called into theatre and I snuggled Felix on my lap until he went to sleep. The anaesthetist was fantastic! He put the gas mask on Felix's monkey and sock cat because "they both want to have a look at the mask", and then put it close to Felix's face. He then started blowing in and out, which Felix copied, making him go to sleep very quickly (with his eyes wide open).

So sleepy...

I was told the surgery would only take fifteen minutes and, if I was lucky, I might be able to grab a quick coffee. I ran down to the cafe (with Bekah, who was with me all day), and got a coffee and then rushed to the recovery room to wait for Felix. Just like last time, the fifteen minutes passed with no Felix. Other kids started returning who had gone into surgery after him and I started to get a bit anxious. Finally, after an hour and a half, I saw a gurney being pushed through the doors. The back rest was elevated and, perched on the top, on his tummy, was my little man. He looked so cute peeking over the top of the bed, just like he was peering over the edge of a cliff. He was very groggy and didn't want cuddles for a while, he just wanted time to wake up. The surgery went well. They cleaned out his ears, especially the right one which was infected again and full of gunk, and put a new grommet in his right ear. It took a while longer than expected, but most of the delay was waiting for him to wake up from the anaesthetic. It seems Felix is like his Mummy and doesn't like to wake up after surgery.

Just wanting to cuddle my  arm.

I will be taking a break again from writing my blog for a while. There is a lot going on in our lives right now and I need some time to focus on a multitude of different things. Things like Facebook and my blog will be taking a back seat for a while. Make sure you check back in, from time to time, to see if I'm back. Hopefully I'll have lots of new stories to tell by then. Once again, thank you for your overwhelming support, with people reading my blog over 30,500 times in the past 15 months! It's really encouraging, to me, to know there are so many people willing to increase their understanding of what Down syndrome is, or support me while they are walking the same path as me. Stay tuned.....