Luke's operation was in July. Most everything went as expected. He recovered quickly and we got to leave a few days early. He has completely recovered and had a positive post op appointment. We return to Texas Children's Hospital in December for a follow up MRI. Here are a few less graphic pictures.
We thought they were going to shave his head, so we played in the mirror the night before in the hotel.
We waited for a really long time!! That is an understatement. Because of the number of surgeons/doctors that he was going to be using their schedules had to line up perfect. Once the day arrived and emergencies occurred, their schedules didn't match anymore. After about 5 hours of waiting they finally took him. That was around 2 pm, we knew it would be a 4-5 hour surgery and he had not eaten since dinner the night before. Under all those circumstances he did great. After surgery he guzzeled the Pedilyte as fast as he could, even grabbing the bottle from the nurses. He drank his max amount allowed in just a few minutes.
Top Left: Friday morning, about 12 hours after surgery in PICU. Still heavily medicated.
Top Right: Saturday afternoon, finally moved to a regular room and unhooked from all cords. IV still in incase it was needed. Only on Tylenol by now. He could only see out of one eye...barely.
Bottom Left: Sunday, both eyes open.
Bottom Right: Ready to go home.
We described him as Stewy from Family Guy in the top left. He slept on his side for a little while and so the swelling went to one side, making it pointy.
Then, when the bandages came off....we called him Chucky! He will understand when he is older. :)
I had packed some toys because I didn't know what to expect. I assumed we would have to keep a child that was hooked up to machines in a crib for a few days. Boy, I could not have been more wrong! Once we were out of PICU there were toys everywhere and he was allowed to do whatever he wanted. He could even roam other floors of the hospital, we did not do that though.
The only instructions from the neurosurgeon was to not climb or ride in things. He wanted him to stay on the ground when playing.
