Two Days

At one o'clock in the morning before his surgery Quinn cried out, "Mommy, I'm scared." I wasn't sure what it was he was afraid of, but I crawled into his pull-out bed at the Ronald McDonald House and assured him everything would be okay. I also told him I was a little scared too, but knew that everything would be okay.

Exactly 24 hours later I was sitting by his bedside as he cried out in pain, "Mommy, it hurts. It hurts. It hurts." I stroked his hair and assured him that it wouldn't always hurt this bad as I waited for the tylenol with codeine to kick in and do it's job. This was the first round of trying the tylenol instead of the morphine.

An hour later he was still in pain and restless so the nurse gave him morphine. He slept soundly for three hours until the doctors and nurses started checking him out.

There were a lot of moments during those two days that were so hard. So many moments where I stopped to remember how thankful I am that my children are, in general, healthy children and this little adventure was just a very short-term affair.

As we were in the pre-op room waiting for things to get going a "child specialist" came and talked with Quinn about what was going to happen. She talked about the special sleepy medicine that he'd breath in, she showed him the special mask where the medicine would come out, and she let him "paint" a good smelling smell inside the mask to hide the real smell of the medicine. He choose bubble gum.

She also gave him a "shadow doll" to demonstrate the different things that would be happening to him with the doll. He told me I could hold the doll while he was in the operating room, because, "It's my shadow. Since you can't come with you can hold the doll."

While waking up in the recovery room Quinn was nervous that he'd be too heavy for Mike and I to carry around. I told him that's exactly why I go to the gym and that's exactly why his daddy works out in the garage - so we'd be strong enough to carry him.

He ate a total of three popsicle during his recovery period. Each time he remembered to say please and thank you - even in his drunken state.

The doctors and nurses kept warning us that children are a bit "grumpy" when they wake up after surgery. I kept doubting that would be Quinn, but figured I was wrong. Nope. The nurse in the recovery room was amazed at how calmly he woke up. She said the first thing he asked for was a popsicle. And then he wanted the tv on. Each time he said please.

Friday morning was spent with Quinn crying to go home. "I just want to go home and leave these stupid casts at the hospital."

Now that we're home, Quinn only recounts the good parts of his little adventure to family and friends...

"I got to play in the water that the face spit out." (Millennium Park - the day before)

"I only took like 5 or 10 breathes of the medicine and then I fall asleep. It smelled like bubble gum."

"The doctor didn't let me eat after midnight because he didn't want me to throw up on him. That would be gross."

"I got room service."

"I ate hot dogs and milkshakes. And so many popsicles."

"The nurses thought I'd be grumpy, but I wasn't."

"The doctor gave me more bone to help my feet."

"I get to use a wheel chair!"

"I can pee in a bottle."