Pacer Surgery

It is Wednesday, June 17th 9:40AM as I begin this post; and I am sitting outside of Children's Surgery Waiting Room at Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas. Joshua is in surgery right now. We arrived at the hospital just before 5:30 this morning. Josh was a little ticked that he had to take off all of his clothes and put on a hospital gown. But he relented and did as he was asked. Then, he even climbed onto the gurney and watched TV as he waited for them to come wheel him into surgery. We waited quite a while, and talked to several doctors and nurses. One of them, the anesthesiologist (before she got all the details of Josh's surgery) thought they were going to open up his entire chest, so she suggested he have an epidural. We did not know she didn't have all the details, so we were helping to explain about the epidural to Josh - who all of a sudden got VERY nervous. They planned for me to wear a "bunny suit" (a set of blue paper coveralls - and huge I might add) so I could go in with him to the operating room until he fell asleep. After the surgeon explained to her that Joshua's incisions would not be that big, she came in and said he would not need an epidural after-all but I could still come in with him like we planned (since that seemed to re-assure him).

Another man - from the company that makes the pacers - came in while we waited to show us the device and explain one more time what all they would be doing to implant them. He also explained how to use them (even though we won't be able to do any of that for several weeks).

Finally, they were ready and we wheeled him (still hooked to his home ventilator) down the halls to the OR. They quickly put him on their ventilator and bled in the knock out gas, which they explained smelled kind of like stinky elephants at the zoo. Josh didn't have a chance to tell us whether he smelled anything or not as he was out very quickly. Before he closed his eyes, he had a very scary look of panic on his face that only came on him after they started the gas. It was sad to see him look like that. And of course, he stiffens up so as he goes under and squeezes his eyes closed as if in pain. I knew he wasn't, though. It is just an affect of the gas as it puts him under.

I stayed in the OR a few more minutes until they were sure he wouldn't open his eyes again. Then, they had me wheel his ventilator cart into the recovery area so it would be ready for him. Then, I went to join James in the waiting area. After I got out of my "bunny suit" we went to eat breakfast. That was 8:15AM.

It's almost 10AM now - an hour and a half after surgery began and so far no word.

Will update again later and have some fun pictures to share, too!

Until then, pray for us and especially for the doctors, etc. working on Josh right this very minute.