Dry Run

Tomorrow, bright and early, Bode and i are headed to the hospital to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. Kind of a big deal for us. Neither one of our kids has had surgery before or had to be hospitalized (knocking on wood for the future). I'm a little anxious. Hoping I'm doing the right thing for him. Hoping having them removed will help him sleep better, feel better. Hoping he'll cope with a new, bright, loud environment with lots of people talking to him and asking him to do things and having things done to him etc., etc...

This afternoon we had a special storytime, just the two of us. We happened to have a story in one of our Richard Scarry books called The Big Operation. Huckle the Cat has to have his tonsils taken out! It goes through his diagnosis, a tour of the hospital, his fears, the surgery and waking up to ice cream. So i read it to him but didn't tell him he was going to have surgery.

Later we went to my work for a "hospital tour." I wish he were having his surgery there but we don't have a peds unit for overnight stays so we're going to the same hospital system, but a different location. Anyway. We went into a room (our neighbor friend was with us too) and tried out the blood pressure cuffs and the oxygen saturation monitors. They played with the wall oxygen with the nasal tubing. Played with the wall suction. Rolled around on the stretcher. But their favorite thing was the little incognito potty we have in each room. Looks like a little seat for visitors, but then presto chango! It's a potty! They both used it at least three times each. (I was impressed they were able to squeeze out more pee!). He thought everything was really cool and didn't want to go home! Luckily, all kids were lured away with the promise of riding the talking elevator ("first fuh-loor"). And all the kids skipped out when the time came.

I'm worried he's going to go into that mode of his where he won't cooperate because he's freaked out and feeling out of control. This includes simple requests. Not opening his mouth for the nurse to assess his throat. Not willingly stepping on a scale. Yelling at me to talk to him when i'm trying to talk to someone else, like, oh, the anesthesiologist. All stress-related "I'm starting to feel anxious" behavior. And i'm worried about the anesthesia and making sure i'm in the recovery room when he starts to wake up. I'm worried he's going to be traumatized by the whole thing. I realize this is fairly minor surgery and lots of kids go through this sort of thing everyday. But. I don't go through this everyday. And i'm nervous.

Tonight we read The Big Operation again. And i told him we were going to the hospital tomorrow and that he was going to have his tonsils taken out. I told him it would help him breathe and sleep better and made sure he knew they were in his throat.

He was unphased and said simply, "If they bring me two things of ice cream, i'll share one with you."

Oh, i hope he just sails through this!