Aaron's Surgery December 2009

Friday, December 18, Aaron had surgery on both ankles. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. but he wasn't taken back for surgery until 11:00 a.m. Aaron watched "Cast Away" while we waited and I worked on making a list and checking it twice. Aaron's biggest concern about having surgery was getting the IV put in. Little did he know, that was going to be the easiest part. The nurse put a patch on his hand to numb it and he never even felt the IV as she put it in. The doctor removed the accessory naviculars on both of his feet. That is a little extra piece of bone he was born with that has caused him pain off and on since he injured his foot a few years ago. The surgery was quick only a half hour and then a short while later they called me back to recovery. Aaron was very confused and in a lot of pain. He had a panicked look in his eyes and kept saying, "my ankles, oh my ankles..." It was very hard for me to see him like that. Kids don't have a concept of severe pain like that...it is not something you can explain to them or prepare them for. I imagine he never thought about what it would feel like after the surgery was over. I felt very sorry for him. Both ankles were in casts and they were cut all the way up the front to allow them to expand with the swelling. He asked about a hundred questions in recovery and the nurse and I were trying not to laugh. At the beginning, he looked at her and said, "Who are you?" she said she was his nurse. A few minutes later he looked at her again and said, "Did you do my surgery?" she said, "I wish!" He is such a worrier and that characteristic was exaggerated a hundred percent by the anesthesia...she finally told him to lay his head back, that it was her job to worry about everything and he needed to try to sleep. We were able to take him home by about 4:00 p.m. It was quite an ordeal driving him home and getting him up into bed as every bump or movement caused him extreme pain. The first night he slept with me and we were up every hour on the hour. Either to give him pain meds, help him use the "portable toilet" or adjusting his legs into a better position. He was so thoughtful that night, always thanking me for taking care of him or apologizing for waking me up. At one point we were awake for about an hour and a half where he couldn't sleep because of the pain. He asked me to tell him some stories from my childhood to distract him. That was a little tough coming up with material that old, in the middle of the night and being sleep deprived and all, but I was eventually able to talk him back to sleep. I told him it was a privilege to take care of such a sweet patient. The first several days it took both Todd and I to carry him. We would take him downstairs in the morning and lay him on an air mattress and then carry him back up to bed at night. The first three days he had to take the pain pills every three hours on the dot. After that he went to the regular Tylenol and only had to take it a few times a day. Now it is a week after surgery, he has made huge progress. He sits in his wheelchair most of the day or on the couch. Yesterday he started walking with the crutches a little bit. It is very slow going but he is glad to be moving again. For someone as active as Aaron, being in bed for a week has not been easy. He has been very brave through it all and it is such a relief to have the worst behind us. He will go in on Jan 4th for a check up and to have the casts removed and surgery sites checked. They will either put the casts on for four more weeks or they might decide to put him in post-op shoes for four weeks. We will see. I am sure he will always remember the Christmas he was wearing cast numbers four and five.