Elliot's Hospital Adventure

Doesn't that title make it sound like fun?  It's not that fun.  But Elliot has handled it very well!



As I mentioned in my last post, Elliot was scheduled for a hypospadias repair and circumcision this morning.  The surgery itself should have taken about 45 minutes, and although he needed general anesthesia for it, I didn't think--relatively speaking--that it would be a big deal.

His pediatric urologist took her time and was excellent at explaining how the surgery had gone and what we could expect.  Various people came in to check on him as he continued to recover from the anesthesia, and all seemed well.  In fact, we were just gathering our things to leave, when the nurse asked if she could check the site just once more to make sure he was good to go.



Seemed like an awful lot of blood in his diaper - especially after they'd just finished telling us only to expect a quarter-sized amount.  The nurse disappeared, and soon after a different nurse came in, explaining that "two sets of eyes are better than one."  Man, I have said those words before!  That is never a good sign.



Pretty soon there were 4-5 nurses crowded around him, and soon after that the resident was paged to come check on him.  After expressing a hematoma and observing yet more bleeding, he and Dr. Baker decided to admit Elliot for the night for observation.



I am not making this next part up.  Though Elliot was calm and quiet, swaddled and with minimal bleeding, they transported him to the main hospital in an ambulance.  It is--no joke--about 100 yards to the hospital.  It literally would have been faster to walk with him in my arms.  But hospital policy requires a formal transport in an ambulance, complete with gurney, vitals continually assessed, and a team of five trained individuals.  And we wonder why our medical costs are so high in this country.  Unbelievable.  The up-side was that the ambulance driver loved Elliot, and Elliot loved him.   



Anyways, it's now midnight, and Elliot is sleeping comfortably in the hospital bed beside me.  Daniel came down to the hospital for a few hours, and we enjoyed a sweet time of calm together.  As long as Elliot continues fine through the night, I think we'll be discharged in the morning and well on our way to putting all this behind us.  I am so grateful for the support of friends and family.  So grateful that Elliot's time in this hospital is just a blink compared to so many other children's.  Grateful for insurance and sterile fields and standards of care.



Grateful for the quiet.

Addendum:  We were discharged about 14 hours after I posted this.  Elliot's on his way to healing, now at home.  After not seeing Lucy for 36 hours, I walked into the house and said, "Lucy!!  I missed you!"

Her response:  "Ball!  Ball!  Ball!  Ball!"

Me:  "Ohh, yes!  There's a ball!  Did you miss mommy?"

Her:  "Ball!  Ball!"

That's a toddler for you.