Flashback Friday: Calvin Goes to the Hospital

Since Calvin was about 18 months old, we realized that his testicles weren't descending as they should. Sometimes they are delayed and just need a little more time, so we kept an eye on them over the next 6 to 12 months. That's when we, and our pediatric urologist friend, concluded that surgery would be the best course of action.

At his pre-surgery exam, it was also discovered that the opening at the tip of his penis was too small and needed to be enlarged. That would be taken care of during surgery as well. The names of the official procedures being done under general anesthetic would be: bilateral orchiopexies and urethromeatoplasty. Yeah, I can't say them either.

We had about a month to prepare Calvin for the big day which was one year ago. We wanted Calvin, then 3 years old, to realize that while his private area is, well, private, he'd have to allow people to examine him. We also explained Dr. Pat would be fixing his penis so it would work and feel better. We used the correct anatomical terms and he announced only to a few people in public that he was having penis surgery. Not bad considering how unabashed my children are. I was, however, a little concerned when Karcyn, who was in Kindergarten, had to think of and list all the words she could think of that started with 'P'. Fortunately, she overlooked the obvious elephant in the room, despite the fact that we were all hyperaware of Calvin's groin area at the time.

We scheduled the surgery on a day that Jared worked in the afternoon so we could both be with Calvin, including JJ who was almost 2 months old and of course before the end of December since we had met our yearly deductible. Our neighbors took our school-aged kids for us at 6:00 in the morning and we headed to the hospital. I was more worried about Calvin not cooperating than about anything that could possibly go wrong while he was in surgery.

We were at Legacy Emmanuel hospital and they were fantastic with Calvin. After we checked in and got the paperwork out of the way, we were escorted to a big play room and hung out in there for a little while. I was feeding JJ when they came to take Calvin (and Jared) to his room and dress him in his hospital attire.

Only Calvin could look adorable in PINK elephant scrubs.

 

 

After Calvin was changed and got his preliminary vitals taken, we went back to the play room to hang out. We were actually in there for quite some time, about an hour. But since it was just the 4 of us and not 7, I didn't mind. Calvin and Jared had dino wars.

I played with JJ on the floor. LOVE those first big gummy smiles.

Finally it was time for Calvin to get his "sleepy" medicine. I'm so grateful it was in liquid form. He's a champ at taking medicine. When I went to the hospital for open heart surgery when I was 4 years old, I still remember the nurse bringing in my "sleeping" medicine in a HUGE needle. Oh no you don't. And I fought it and screamed and cried for a long time. My poor parents.

Calvin was wheeled down to the surgery waiting area--in other words...waiting for the relaxers to kick in. I was happy to know we were able to join him until right before they took him to surgery.

I was also able to meet the doctor who would be performing the surgery. Jared had met him before in his office for Calvin's earlier exam. This was when it was apparent that the drugs they gave Calvin were quickly doing their job.

The BEST part of this whole experience (minus Calvin getting the treatment he needed) was seeing him on controlled drugs. O.my.gosh. He is so funny. We have a video clip of it that Jared took with his iphone and I've been trying to figure out how to get it uploaded, but clearly have been unsuccessful. Drats. If you're ever at our house, you need to see it.

And then we said goodbye for a little while.

Surgery was supposed to be about 90 minutes. It was a little longer. During surgery they discovered that Calvin also had a hernia and fixed that while they were in there. Once Dr. O'Halloren came and told us Calvin did great, Jared left for work. He also took JJ with him and delivered him to Grandma Vickie who would watch him so I could just focus on a post-operative Calvin. Fortunately, Jake was old enough to come home with Cooper and Karcyn after school and hold the fort down until we came home about an hour after them.

Calvin was out cold. Even the nurses in the recovery room were surprised by how long Calvin was under. They tried everything they could to rouse him. They finally came to get me almost an hour later when he started to stir. After he woke up, and I said hi, they wheeled him back to his room upstairs. We watched cartoons on TV and he had at least 3 popsicles. We were upstairs only about 45 minutes. Once the nurses established he was able to keep his fluids down, his vitals were stable and the surgical area looked normal--we were able to leave. It's a good thing I didn't have JJ. Calvin was a bear trying to get him dressed and to walk. He was still numb in that area, so he didn't have any pain, but he was super groggy. It was a long, s..l..o..w walk back down to the parking area. He gave up in the big atrium area so I picked him up. The hard part was that he couldn't straddle me, so it was awkward carrying a big child in a nontraditional way. It would have been impossible with an infant carrier and diaper bag on top of that.

It didn't take long before he was sleeping again. I picked up JJ and we came home. When we came inside the house, the three older kids had hidden behind the furniture and yelled "surprise!" when Calvin appeared. There was a big "WELCOME HOME, CALVIN!" sign taped on the wall that they had made while we were gone. I was so touched that they would think to do something so thoughtful for their little brother.

The first few days were the most challenging. It was shortly after we got home that the numbing stuff wore off and Calvin was acutely aware of the pain. He would just lay on the couch and quietly moan or flat out scream in pain. It was like having 2 babies, 3 years apart. Calvin had his first accident while he rested. I didn't catch him soon enough. He needed help getting to the bathroom and the first few times were painful, no doubt. Fortunately, there wasn't much that LOTS of popsicles and some pizza and LOTS of pain reliever couldn't fix. The first night or two were also long and not as restful as we would have liked, but all things considered, I think Calvin did great.

I had to laugh when the post-op instructions said that we needed to keep Calvin from running, jumping, and straddling things for 3-6 weeks. Really? This is a 3-year-old BOY we're talking about. By day 3 he was up and at 'em again. I gave up telling him not to run or play. It was impossible without the use of restraining equipment.

I really wanted to take a "before" picture and an "after" picture, but Jared gave me a scolding look. What??  It's amazing the difference in just the "look". Calvin has two 3 inch scars in a V formation in his pelvic area. But now he looks so much better and more comfortable. There were 2 plastic buttons secured on the under side of his scrotum to hold those testicles in place for 10 days after surgery. Calvin was very aware of those too. Fortunately, the buttons remained in place (since Calvin is known to remove stitches on his own) and served their proper function.

Calvin was still pretty hung up on his penis for a while, so much so that when he started preschool in February, I had to explain to his teacher about his surgery so she would know that while we're advocates for using the appropriate anatomical terms, it wasn't just a topic we like to talk about frequently in our family.

We're hoping there won't be any negative effects, like a higher risk of testicular cancer or fertility issues when he's older. I think we caught it in enough time that there won't be. I'm so grateful for modern medicine and technology that improves our quality of life.