A Three- Five-Hour Tour Hospital Stay

When Benjamin had his open-heart surgery last October, we drove up to Nashville on a Tuesday.

And came home the following Friday.

When he had his intestinal surgery in January, we checked into Children's (here in Chattanooga) early Monday morning.

And came home the next Monday.

But this surgery?

Small potatoes.

We got there at 8:30.

Surgery started at about 10:40.

And we were walking out of the door at 1:20.

Wow.

I have more pictures than words to share about this, and that's saying something.

'Cuz I like to talk...err...type. Or whatever.

Here we are the day before the surgery in the doctor's office. We actually made this appointment in February. She wanted to see him in six months to see about scheduling his surgery.

Playing peek-a-boo (his favorite) in the waiting room. Mommy is especially waiting to get out of the "no-food-or-drink-waiting-room." Can you guess why? ;)



This boy loves his daddy.





So she looked him over, said he looked ready for surgery, and we started talking dates. Matthew starts a new job (same company, different position) the week of Labor Day, and we really wanted a Friday (so Matthew would be home to help on the weekend). She looked over her calendar and said, "How about tomorrow?"

So Matthew, who has been working insane hours right now anyway (busy time of the year for him), worked until about 3:30 in the morning, got home, showered, and got about two-and-a-half hours of sleep until it was time to take Andrew to my mom's and for the three of us to head off to Children's yet again.

Matthew working on spreadsheets and other math stuff (Can you tell I'm an English person, not a math person????)



No, Matthew wasn't asleep. Quite.



A little man-to-boy talk



"Hey, what is this thing and how can I get it off??"



Mommy and Benjamin snuggling with the giraffe. This giraffe has been with him through all his surgeries, as you will recall here and here.



Again, Matthew isn't asleep, he just doesn't know when to open his eyes.



This picture seriously makes me laugh. Look at Benjamin's face!!!



Right before going to the OR. He is completely loopy, and it was so hysterical!!



So while he was in surgery (about 90 minutes), we chilled in the room.

I ate the wedding favors from my cousin Marianne's wedding.



And Matthew tried to sleep.





Until I made him go to the van to sleep.

He was down there about 45 minutes when they came in and said they were about to bring Benjamin back to us. So I called Matthew to come back up to the room.

I took this picture of myself (obviously). The intent was to show that I was actually getting to read my Real Simple magazine when the issue was actually current, but just as I was about to snap the picture, my goofball husband said something corny (I honestly can't remember what), and I laughed. So I kept it.



They brought B back and said we needed to stay until he woke up and had something to eat and/or drink.



He slept for about an hour or so and then woke up a groggy mess. It was really cute.





He had no interest in crackers, and since he can't drink liquids, we thickened some apple juice with Thick-It and he downed a 4 oz container of that mixture.

Here is his only bandage. We go back to the doctor tomorrow for a post-op appointment.



Ready to go home!



On the way!!



He honestly was back to normal in like a day. He is just so amazing!