Mason's Surgery

At Mason's five year well visit appointment in September, the pediatrician noticed that one of his testicles was undescended.  I did not know that was supposed to be checked, so it was news to us.  She referred us to a pediatric urologist to have it looked at.

We got into the urologist a few weeks ago, and he immediately noticed that Mason had something called meatal stenosis.  Again, something I had never heard of.  He said if it was just the testicle issue, he would have told us to come back in a year to see if it was truly undescended, but with this meatal stenosis, he needed surgery soon.  Without the surgery, it could cause UTI's, pain urinating, voiding, and other issues.  During the surgery he would check the testicle to see if it was tethered and repair that if needed.

They got us into surgery the next week.  I mentioned it to Mason two days before and it didn't go so well.  We told him he wouldn't feel anything because he would be asleep.  That terrified him!  He was scared to sleep in his bed that night because he thought something was going to happen to him.  We calmed him down and didn't mention it again until the night before.  He was a little apprehensive about it, but seemed okay.  I told him that he wouldn't be able to eat breakfast and he thought I meant he could never eat breakfast again.  Sweet boy!

Wednesday morning, we left the house at 7:30 to be at the hospital by 8:00.  He was in pretty good spirits at this point.  We got into a room around 8:30 and just had to wait until surgery at 10:30.  I thankfully brought the Ipad and crayons/coloring book so that kept him occupied.  He did great through all the vitals, but didn't like having to get naked under the hospital gown.

my brave boy!

He liked that the special socks squeaked on the floor!

We were glad to hear that one of us could go back into the operating room while he was put to sleep.  Mason started getting really upset when all the doctors and nurses started getting ready to take him back.  He was so mad because he did not want to go to sleep!  I got scrubbed up and it was time to wheel him back.  He was crying at this point and I was just trying to hold it together.  When we walked into the OR, he really lost it.  He didn't want to get off the bed and get onto the operating table so it took me and two doctors to get him over.  They put the gas mask on him, and he was just so mad with his arms crossed.  I was holding his hand and he had tears streaming down his face and then he finally squeezed my hand.  They warned me about him "falling asleep" but I was not prepared to see that.  His whole body twitched like he was having a seizure and I could see the whites of his eyes because he eyes rolled back into his head.  That's when my tears started flowing!  He then just looked peaceful and asleep so I left.

This look kills me and makes me laugh at the same time.  This was right before we walked back to the OR.

They called us about 15 minutes in and said that they would need to do the testicle repair, so we knew it would be a little while longer.  The whole thing took just under an hour, and then we waited another hour for him to wake up in recovery.

We both were able to go to recovery and he just looked so pale and in pain.  He immediately started crying when he saw me and said his teetee hurt.  The nurse gave him more pain meds and he slowly started feeling better.  He requested an orange and purple icee.  He just kept saying how hungry he was!  At this point it was noon, and he hadn't eaten since dinner the night before.  They said the fact he was hungry was a good sign and that we should get to leave soon.

Right when we he woke up in recovery

daddy feeding him an icee

Ready to go home!  He asked if we could take the wheelchair with us.

We were able to leave around 2 and all he wanted was McDonald's.  He ate well and just spent the rest of the day laying on couch.  He was in quite a bit of pain for the next two days.  The first night we had to wake him every four hours to give him his medicine.  He didn't pee for 24 hours, so we were really getting worried.  He was scared that it would hurt so he was holding it in.  After talking to the nurse, she said to go ahead and put him in a warm bath.  Almost immediately after sitting in water he went.  I thought we had turned the corner and he would start going, but no.  He held it again until 8pm that night and it took us putting him back in tub to get him to go.  His poor stomach was so hard because he was holding it in all day.

Friday morning he woke up screaming and didn't want to pee even though he had to.  He wanted to get back in bath, but we said no.  He finally went and that day went much better.  I think we over did it a little because his sutures starting bleeding a little.  He has fall break next week, so I'm glad we have a week to get him all the way better before he goes back to school.

All in all, he was so brave.  I am so glad this is behind us!