Alex's surgery

Alex was admitted into the NICU at Denver Children's Hospital on the evening on July 29th, after being flown up from our hometown. The Flight for Life nurses told me they thought he had a really good chance of a full recovery, since he didn't need any oxygen throughout the flight: he was breathing well enough on his one, fully expanded lung, and what air he was getting from the collapsed one.

The NICU is a very confusing place, with lots of Dr's of all types coming to talk to the parents. This all happened nearly 4 years ago so I can't remember many of them now, however I don't think I would have been able to tell you who they were while we at the hospital! The one constant Dr we saw every day was the surgeon who worked on Alex, and his intern, let's call them Dr. Surgeon and Dr. Intern!

Dr Surgeon told us he thought he would be able to operate on Alex first thing on Tuesday morning, giving him all of Monday to settle down and grow a little stronger. The wait was on.

I remember very little about that Monday - it seems to have disappeared into the great unknown! One very clear memory was my commitment to nursing Alex, since I knew he needed the extra nourishment I could provide. So, I started the routine of pumping every 3 hours. For those of you who have had to do this from day 1, it is PAINFUL. When nursing a baby you don't realize how little is coming out until your milk comes in, but when pumping you see every drop ... or lack thereof! By Monday night I told Jon that I couldn't do this for much longer, that if my milk didn't start flowing in the next two pumping cycles, I was done. Thankfully, my milk came in ... then I had issues with too much milk, but let's not go there!

Tuesday dawned, and Jon's mum, my parents, Jon, and I congregated around Alex's little warmer/bed. It was hard to believe that my tiny baby was about to have major surgery, one that he needed in order to survive. The Dr's arrived to check him out and were happy with his vital signs etc, so the nurses began to ready him for surgery. We all walked with him towards the surgery ward, where I think only Jon and I were allowed back into the pre-op area.

Remember, this was all nearly 4 years ago, so the memories are a bit fuzzy. I am 100% certain that I cried as they wheeled him away, but what mum wouldn't?

Jon and I went out to the waiting room to find our parents, and it was so busy that we had a difficult time finding a group of seats together. I looked around and thought, "Are all these people waiting for a child in surgery? Are all their children under going life-saving surgery? Or are some have elective surgery?" No one else seemed nearly as upset as I was. Was I being too emotional or were others doing better at hiding their fear?

I can't tell you how long we waited for, or what we did during the wait. I don't think I went anywhere; others may have gone to grab breakfast. I don't even clearly remember Dr Surgeon coming out to tell us that the surgery was a complete success; Alex's left lung had sprung back to full size, once his intestines had been returned to their normal place. Alex was expected to make a total recovery and be a normal little boy.

This is what he looked like after surgery. You can just see the brown iodine under his diaper. He has a NG tube pumping out his stomach, a breathing tube in his throat, heart monitor cables, an oxygen monitor on his toe, an IV giving him glucose sugar and antibiotics, and who knows what else. What I do know, is that he was totally beautiful to me. My little fighter, who Dr Intern nick-named "Alexander the Great."

What was next? Waiting. We had to wait a few days to take him off the ventilator, and then wait for his first bowel movement, showing us that his intestines were working. Then we could start feeding him the milk I was pumping.