Cole's Surgery - Part 3 (FINAL Surgery)

MORNING BREATH
When I entered Cole's bedroom at 5:10 am and touched his blonde head, he happily looked up and wanted to know the whereabouts of his trusty friend. No, not mommy or daddy, but rather, Buzz Lightyear. "Buzz?" he said. When I assured him that we had Buzz he wanted to know about his sidekick, "Woody downstairs?" When he was assured that we had Buzz and Woody, he laid his head on my shoulder and relaxed. His breath smelled bad, but I did not care because his warm head and body felt so good snuggled up to me. You never appreciate morning breath until you realize that it might be the last time you smell it from a child.

In the car, a CD was playing, and it played the Bob Marley song that sings "Don't worry....about a thing....cause every little thing is gonna be alright." Not that it has any spiritual meaning, but I thought it was cool nonetheless. So, since Bob Marley was playing....Laura and I decided it was time to burn some mary jane. :-) Obviously kidding.

CHECK IN
Once we arrived at LCH, we were escorted up to the 5th floor where we met the nurses that will be caring for Cole. Also, Dr. Watts (THE man...THE surgeon) stopped by and said hello and said that Cole looks ready. Cole's daddy immediately returned fire and quizzed the brilliant Surgeon with the question "How do YOU feel Doc?" He looked up from his tablet, smiled, and said "I feel great...plenty of rest and ready to go."

The one negative to this check-in procedure is that we are asked the same 4-5 questions literally 15 times. "What is his birthdate? Any allergies? When is the last time he ate or drank anything? What medicines is he on? How did he respond to the anesthesia before?" This is a good thing, and normally this would make my impatient "New York City" persona arise, but in this case we want them to be thorough.

Then, after all of the questions, it was time to hand over our little boy. He was snuggled against me and was almost ready to fall asleep, but then I stood up to hand him over and he clenched onto my neck and started to protest. After we told him it was ok, he trusted us and went right over to the nurse who cradled him in a warm blanket. The blanket had been placed in a dryer because it was so warm that Cole just relaxed.

As soon as I started to think to myself "wow, this wasn't that hard at all," I glanced up and saw Cole looking over the nurse's shoulder at us with trusting eyes (not crying...not fussing...not complaining). As we watched him disappear down the hallway, we shed a tear or 5 and then went into the 5th floor waiting room so that we could write this update.

It is not 7:06 am and we just received word that Cole is in the operating room. The clock starts now on his next 4-5 hours of surgery/tribulation.

More updates as we receive them.