Pre-Op #1

Today brought A LOT. Most of it, I expected so nothing came as a surprise to me.

Camden is getting to that age where he has to be into everything and he has to start discovering new things so he was a little wild today.

We left our house about 10:00AM and arrived at Shriner's Greenville, South Carolina about 12:15PM. The closer and closer we got the more and more my stomach started to get knots. There is absolutely NOTHING that could have prepared me for this day or tomorrow. After we arrived at Shriner's, got checked in, and immediately got Camden weighed and measured. We were put in a small check-up room where we would wait on all of the involved doctor's for tomorrow would visit us.

 

Dr. Pete's nurse came in and of course they always have 100 questions for you so we spent some time answering those. She also told us that Camden's procedure would be at 6:00AM and that was the time to be at the hospital to get checked in.

 After that she sent the anesthesiologist in to ask more questions and walk us through what would go on during the morning. They will take him back to the operating room without us, he would get a mask with gas to help him go to sleep(so not shots that's a plus). Although he will get an IV for other things(but that's while he's asleep). He should be back there for about an hour, or less then will start waking up and we will be able to go back and see him then.

After Camden has his cast on we will be taken back to a cast drying room where we will dry the plaster so that then we can decorate it with tape or whatever else we have.

We also had a visit from Dr. Pete who talked to us about the steps as to what he will be doing tomorrow and how he will do everything, he makes it sound so simple because he is the only doctor in the NATION to do casting and make the spine completely straight again. He told us that it was probably a good thing that we weren't in the operating room when he was doing this because we would probably pass out. Even though there is NO INVASIVE surgery involved and it's all outside the body he still has to use the body by pushing, and tugging so it would be a hard process to watch, he really had nothing more to say except to answer our questions that we had for him, which weren't many.

 

After the pre-op today I have taken advantage of every moment I had to hold, hug and squeeze my Camden. Surprisingly today there were no tears shed, although tonight when I was feeding him before he went to bed I just stared at him and balled. Knowing that will be his last real bath for a while and that it's a sponge bath from now until who knows when, that it will be the last time I can squeeze him tight for a while, or knowing that he is so comfortable now without his cast. It breaks my heart to so many pieces I can't even think about it.

When we were released from Shriner's we did a little shopping for Camden since it's 80 degrees outside and he needs some bigger clothes to cover his cast too, and just a little for my husband and I. We ate at this AMAZING restaurant in downtown then came back to the Ronald McDonald house where we will stay for the night.

 

Tonight is so bittersweet with my baby, he is sleeping so soundly right now and I can only hope that tomorrow night after he get his cast that he will be just as comfortable and sleep just as soundly. I need to prepare myself for the fact that a diaper change will be just a little harder after tomorrow, and cleaning up spit up or throw up is going to be a little more difficult, that rolling over will be harder, or that crawling is going to take a lot more work than before. The nurses keep telling me that they are SO surprised at how comfortable children get in their cast, so quickly. I can only hope and pray that Camden will be that child.

 

Tomorrow will be a new day and it will be our lives for the next 2 years, every 6 weeks. My entire life will revolve around Camden, he is the most important thing that I need to worry about right now and for the rest of my life, but I wouldn't trade it for the world and never will.  Although I know he will have to work a little harder for things. I know that I will too. Emotionally and physically. I understand that this will wear me out until I can get used to it and that it's going to bother me more than it will him but I have to live my everyday like that and I'm just going to have to get used to that.

Many many prayers would be appreciated tomorrow for Camden's procedure and his strength, for mine and my husband's strength to keep accepting these things, and for our families strength through the next year.