Surgery is over....All is well!

The day of surgery was a little different than I was expecting. I had so much peace. I really felt like God had his arms wrapped around me and was breathing peace and strength over me. He was so present. There was never a moment of fear or panic for me.

Here is Matthew in his adorable clown hospital gown. I especially loved the orange grippy socks they gave him. He is so cute. The nurse even gave him a Thomas the Train sticker which made his whole day.

Playing trains with Daddy to pass the time.

I had to get dressed up in a "bunny suit" in order to take Matthew back to the operating room. We felt it was going to be less stressful on him if I took him back and held him while they put him to sleep. I loved all the staff. They were so reasurring and helpful. I walked into the operating room and was overwhelmed with how bright and how cold it was in there. It felt like it dropped 20 degrees from the hallway to the room. Matthew didn't freak out until he saw all the people there with masks on. He couldn't see thier faces and that bothered him. It probably only took him 30 seconds for the gas stuff to work on him. Then, I left and the surgeon got busy. I felt very comfortable that Matthew was in capable earthly hands and that our Heavenly Father ultimately had him in His hands. Unfortunately Matthew had a few complications during the surgery, which I will talk about at the end of this post. He woke up immediately after surgery instead of sleeping some of it off. He cried for a good 1/2 hour (although it seemed longer). The nurse gave him some additional pain medication to calm him down as he really seemed to be in pain. She wound up doing that twice to get his pain under control. He just layed in my arms. I don't think he has ever been that still. It completely broke my heart to see him in so much pain. I was not prepared for that as we had been told by the anesthesiologist that Matthew had been given a spinal to reduce and even eliminate his pain. So the amount of pain he was in suprised me. It seemed like the spinal only affected his legs. He was not able to put weight on them until late that night and the next day he was in so much pain that he couldn't stand at all.
So, basically the surgery was successful as far as we know at this point. Time will really tell. The surgeon was confident that the lump in his eyebrow was in fact a dermoid cyst. Thankfully we got it out because it would continue to grow and eventually affect his sight. It was not attached to his skull and did not have any major blood vessels surrounding it. Yeah!!! I was actually most worried about that part of the surgery.

Matthew's hernia in the lower part of his abdomen was repaired with no problem. Routine!

The right testicle (sorry if this embarrasses anyone) was much higher than the surgeon expected...he has not seen one this high before. It was also smaller then he expected...not sure what effect, if any, this will have. It took him a little time to unkink all the blood vessels and get proper blood flow. Only time will tell if this works. The surgeon really felt that this was something that happened in utero.

He was not able to pull the testicle all the way down, but it is in the sack. It could go back up again but we are praying against this, otherwise he will most likely have to have more surgery.

This part of the surgery was much more invasive. Instead of two to three stitches, he had 12 + glue just on his scrotum. The pediatrician was quite shocked when she saw that on Friday. She could tell that they had to do some pretty invasive work. Poor baby!

It was rough the first couple of days but today Matthew is mostly back to himself. We have to really watch him because he is feeling so much better he tends to over do it and suffers the consequences later.

We feel like we are on the road to recovery and we are getting our little buddy back. Please pray for complete healing for our little guy and that everything would function the way it is supposed to. I am so thankful for Matthew's wonderful surgeon at Children's and feel so blessed to feel the presence of God in such a powerful way when I really needed it.

Up next for Matthew....Wednesday we will set up his speech and physical therapy schedule and goals. Looking forward to all the positive changes that are coming.

Also, please pray for our beautiful daughter. She failed two hearing screenings at the doctor's office. They have referred her to Children's for some more extensive tests as they believe the cause of the hearing loss is nerve damage of some kind since her ears are perfect and she has never had an infection. Matthew will be going through hearing testing as well because of his speech deficiency and because of the fact the hearing loss could definitely be genetic, thanks to me. :)

Lots of fun here at our house.

Matthew hanging out on the couch later that night. He was so out of it and was unable to use his legs. I love these froggy jammies on him. Thanks again "Aunt" Laurie.