Tuesday, June 20, 2006 9:38 AM CDT

"My G-tube is gone forever!" (Aidan's words)

Yesterday Aidan had the surgery to close up the opening where his G-Tube had been. The doctor wanted him there by 6:30 am and everything went as planned. We went to Grandpa's house in Fresno to spend the night, got up a bit before 6 am and were there at Children's on schedule.

He was in the Operating Room by 7:30am. Biggest bonus of the day!! he didn't have to get an IV until he was under sedation at the OR! I wonder if his miserable experiences in previous day surgeries have influenced their change in policy or if it's just this doctor's preference . But this made things so much easier for everyone concerned. They even got his monthly labs while he was under (I hope and they planned -- we didn't ask afterwards because by then, what would be the point?)

He was recovering by 8:30 and we were out of there slightly after 9 am and home by about 10:30.

We didn't even have to give him motrin until 2 and then again at 8 pm just before he went to sleep for the night.

You know that a surgery has gone well when the most difficult part of it is trying to keep the child quiet on the sofa for the rest of the day!

He did get a sudden unexplained contact-allergy type rash on his face but it went away in about an hour. HE also had a temperature, but this is completely normal for Aidan after a surgery.

This morning he asked to watch a video and have 7Up and Nachos. Life is settling back to normal -- though we'll be buying less 7UP now that he won't be leaking so much of his fluids through his stoma.

Wednesday, June 14, 2006 12:05 AM CDT

Aidan had his surgical consultation yesterday. The surgery is scheduled for Monday the 19th -- it will be a day surgery and not too complicated, just a matter of revising the tissue and stitching. We have to get to the hospital by 6:30 (am, that is) so there is a strong possibility that we will stay Sunday night with Aidan's grandparents in town. Our 20th wedding anniversary is also the 19th and our two oldest boys have birthdays on the 17th and 25th of June, respectively.

June seems to be a medical month in his history -- I think we are at 5 out of 8 right now as far as hospitalizations for June, if you count his birth month.... !

We figured out that an Ace bandage wrapped around his middle seems to keep the stoma from leaking as much, and also avoids the discomfort of removing tape from the bandage several times a day. So his comfort level has been much better in the past couple of weeks. But I can tell his mood has been more fragile in the past couple of weeks -- he is not his normal cheerful self -- so I'm glad that pretty soon he will be past all this. The pediatric surgeon is excellent -- he made the news a few years back when he separated Siamese twins -- so we know Aidan is in good hands.