Stitches and Surgery

The Wednesday after Easter weekend, I got a call from Ava's school that she had fallen on the playground and had a pretty deep cut that likely needed stitches. I hurried to pick her up, and we headed straight to the ER.

Luckily, we have friends in high places (thank you, Jesse!) and were seen almost immediately despite the five-hour wait.

I finally got a full look at the cut when the nurse removed the bandage they had applied at school. It was still bleeding like crazy. Bless her heart!

Despite the fact that we avoided the initial wait time, we were still at the hospital forever! We had to wait while the numbing medicine took effect, and then they gave Ava some medicine to make her loopy. The nurse described it as the equivalent of her drinking a couple margaritas, and that couldn't have been more accurate. (Upon getting her popsicle, she said "orange…tastes like orange"…ha!)

Five hours, four stitches, and one popsicle later, our baby girl was ready to go home. 

However, as we were getting in the car the loopy medicine started to wear off, and things went downhill fast. Ava screamed nearly the entire ride home, and insisted that her house was "that way...not this way!!" When we pulled up to our house, she continued to scream that "this is not my house," and I had to explain to the sweet couple out walking their dog that it was in fact her house and that I was not attempting to kidnap this child. It's funny now. 

We finally got her in the house, but the next hour was a complete mess. Due to the medicine, we weren't supposed to let her stand/walk, but she refused to get in her bed, sit on the couch, or be held. She didn't even want us to be in the same room. And she was crying like a crazy person. Needless to say, it was not a pleasant experience.

The medicine finally wore off, and just like that, Ava was back to normal and requesting the ice cream I had promised her several hours earlier.

The scar doesn't look great at this point, but we are being diligent about putting on Vitamin E and silicon strips. We will also be keeping it covered from the sun for quite some time. So, this is going to be "the year of the bandaid" when it comes to pictures of Ava.

A few weeks after Ava's trip to the ER, Rylan visited the hospital as well. 

One of his testicles was undescended when he was born, which is evidently pretty common for boys born early. The general practice is to wait 6-9 months to see if it drops by itself, and if not, it has to be fixed surgically. Our doctor recommended having the procedure done before the one-year mark in order to avoid any future issues with fertility or a higher risk of testicular cancer. 

The procedure itself is very routine, but Rylan did have to be put under general anesthesia for the surgery. As a result, I was a nervous wreck.

Here is the little patient in his tiny (but still too big for him) gown before they took him back for surgery. 

Despite the fact that he couldn't eat or drink anything that morning, Rylan was as happy as can be (the dream-feed I gave him in the middle of the night helped). All the nurses loved him :).

The surgery only took about 30 minutes and was a complete success. I finally got him back in my arms, and we snuggled until the anesthesia completely wore off.

(His hand was bandaged to cover where the IV had been.)

After a couple days, Rylan was back to normal and back to school...with strict instructions to avoid PE class for a few weeks ;).

I am so glad the surgery is done, and I really hope we avoid more trips to the hospital for as long as possible. April was a tough month for this mama's heart.