Patrick's:: Stephen's Surgery- Success

Stephen is officially a trooper with a smile!
Wednesday evening as I was packing up John to go to my parents for a couple days, my stomach was turning and I was thinking of every reason to not have to take Stephen for his surgery. I dropped off John and he was happy to be at grandma's; looking forward to waffles in the morning, his new little bed grandma and grandpa got for him and all the 2 on 1 time! I drove home second guessing everything, does he really need surgery? Maybe his ear infections weren't that bad...
I came home and Ryan and I put Stephen to bed.
Thursday morning Ryan and I got up bright and early to get ready. We woke Stephen up at 5:30a to change his clothes and head to Children's. We hadn't told him anything about what was to come, up to this point. So I told SJ that we needed to go to the hospital and before I could say anything else, he cut me off asking if John got sick at Grandma's and if he was OK. Ahh, that hit like a dagger! He is always so sweet and concerned for his brother and everyone else. Off to the hospital.... Our ride there Ryan and I didn't have much to say as we both had heavy hearts.
We checked in and SJ happily got his bracelet (AKA hospital name band) and we were called right back. The staff was so nice and kind to Stephen. They talked me through everything, we met with his surgeon and the nursing staff. I went back into the OR with him. He was so compliant, never cried and just said "HI" to everyone and smiled. He fought the sleepy gas, but as soon as I told him to take a little nap he closed his eyes and I gave him a kiss and was escorted out.
When I met up with Ryan in the waiting room we quickly realized I forgot his puppy at home! Ryan had emails for work that he needed to respond to so I tried my luck at racing to my parents house to get the puppy I sent with John the night before since they were closer then our house. I picked up the dog and as I pulled into the parking ramp Ryan called that Dr. Shefelbine had just talked to him. Ahh! Not the worst thing, I know but I wanted to hear from her how it went... The report was that his tonsils were huge, his adenoids were of significant size and his tubes were placed wonderfully. Great! His surgery was necessary!
SJ was a "wild wake-up" ... I wonder where he gets that from? ME. Waking up from surgery is the worst... They got him settled and we were taken to our room for the night.
Stephen's nurse, Donna was a saint - anything and everything SJ wanted she had waiting for him. All the movies, Popsicles and clean linens and PJs he could dream of. We watched Chicken Run and Fox and the Hound as he ate 9 Popsicles! He was laughing and never cried. So compliant to the blood pressure checks, temp checks, IV checks, and even his oral medicine & ear drops. He then had ice chips and apple juice. He was eager to get out of his bed and play... so we walked down the hall to the toy room. He played in there for 20 minutes and then started asking for lunch. We ordered him Mac and cheese, apple sauce, and ice-cream. He ate everything!! And then passed out for the afternoon. I took a nap with him and Ryan headed to work for a meeting he needed to attend. SJ woke up about 4:30 whimpering a bit from the pain... nothing a popsicle can't help! :) At this point, I asked the nurse if we had to spend the night- he was doing so well! She said that she had never seen a child this age do this well! She thought it was very reasonable to get to go home but to see how the next few hours went and we could make a decision around 9pm. By 5:30 he was asking for more dinner and when we could go play again.... I fed him and we went walking around, robot (AKA IV tower) in tow. Ryan came back and we had the nurse disconnect his IV tower so we could be mobile easier. At that point, I knew I wanted to go home. Stephen wanted to stay-- he loved the Mac and cheese/ice cream/popsicles on tap, he didn't want to take off his "new" PJ's and he wanted to keep watching movies. The joys when you are 2!
We had SJ take a cozy coup down to the pharmacy to pick up his meds and by the time we got back the nurse had his discharge stuff ready. She gave him more meds, we changed him and she took out his IV. The way we convinced him to go home was that he could get the mail alone (without John) when we got home. He stayed awake the whole way and he got the mail. I was shocked he was still up- it was almost 9:30pm! By the time Ryan and I carried everything in from the car, got a little organized we realized Stephen had tucked himself in bed with his puppies. Ryan slept in John's bed and took the night shift- SJ slept until almost 9am this morning!
He had eggs and yogurt for breakfast and is happily watching TV with his puppies.

The nurse was quick to notice she had a little OCD kiddo on her hands... SJ didn't want his jams or his bed sheets dirty. We had them changed a couple times. He cleared his dishes this morning and commented on how nice it is to have a clean table! LOL- I love it!! :)