Midwest Life: Taylor’s Surgery

This past Friday, Taylor had the cyst removed on his neck. I was unbelievably calm, no tears from this mom! When we arrived, we played in the halls of the hospital, had car races on the bed, and blew bubbles. Taylor would talk to all the nurses that walked by and a few stopped in to comment on how content he was. (If only they stuck around for post-op.) The only time I began to get a little worked up was when the anesthesia team came to take him back. I could have asked them to go back as well, but I didn’t really want to see my child drift off into a lifeless sleep, so I just handed my sleeping baby over and smiled. I knew he was in good hands, after all we were in one of the best Children’s Hospitals in the country and our anesthesiologist was a Florida Gator, how could we not be? For the next 25 minutes Casey and I sat in the room. He watched sports center, I looked through the pictures of T-man, just waiting…

Finally, in what seemed like forever but was only 25 minutes, Dr. Tibesar came back and said everything went well. The cyst didn’t rupture and he was in recovery. I was very excited to have Taylor in my arms, and shortly after he was. He was very groggy and confused as to where he was and what had happened. He still had his IV in his leg, and the oxygen monitor on his toe. When he finally woke up a little more, he decided he was hungry and he was hungry now! He was given some apple juice, but he hadn’t eaten since 7 pm the previous night! I don’t know how parents go through this multiple times with their children. My heart definitely goes out to them, to have to endure that pain it indescribable. As parents, you never want your child to feel pain, but sometimes it is necessary. Waiting is the hardest part, and Taylor’s surgery was minor! When your child is just crying out in hunger and you can’t feed them, all you can do is hold him, so that is exactly what I did. I held him so close and just told him it was okay. Casey and I took turns rocking him and showing him that we were there. I don’t think Taylor has fallen asleep on my chest since he was a newborn. It was a much different feeling with his arms wrapped around my neck and his little legs wrapped around my waist, but it was great. I didn’t want to move, I wanted to hold onto that feeling for as long as I could. He could hear my heartbeat and he knew he was safe.

All good things must come to an end, and when he woke up, he was ready to go. We stripped him down, and they started taking the monitors off of him. First came the oxygen monitor, check. Then came the IV….