The Surgery!

The day has finally come. It seems as if everything we have been doing this summer has been leading up to this surgery. The afterwards in unknown territory, but is full of hope. We are so happy with how the surgery went and how everything turned out. We know that we have done something for Colton that will help him in his future and give him choices and options in the future. We love him so very much. Here is a little recap of our day and an update of how Colton is doing today.

We had to be at the hospital at 6 am. We got Colton up and put him in the car. When we got to the hospital it was very busy. There were 9 other kids there before Colton. So we had some waiting time. Colton stuck close to us for the first little bit. He is always more nervous with lots of people around. Then he branched out and played. They finally called us back about 7. We changed him, weighed him and they did he vitals.

When they took us to the second waiting room, it was 7:30 and we didn't have to wait at all. The doctor was there ready for us. They gave us his new bear friend who we have named COCO because it is the Cochlear bear and also has implants for Colton to put in it. He immediately put the implant in his mouth. (don't worry, it isn't real!) The doctor said "Hey, those don't go in your mouth." We said, "that's where he puts his hearing aids too."

We walked down to the doors and handed him off to the anesthesiologist. Here he is looking at the lights in the hall. Then we headed off the waiting room to wait. The surgery took just under 3 hours which was amazing. The surgeon said that it couldn't have gone better and he was able to do full insertion. Sometimes they can't fully insert the electrodes into the cochlea. So we were very happy it went so well.
We had to wait about another hour before they let us see him. They only let one parent back first so of course, it was me. I had the first looks at him. He was crying when I went back to him and the nurse was holding him. He saw me and reached for me and I took him and sat down. He calmed down mostly, but was still obviously disoriented and groggy. It took him a good 20 minutes to settle back into a semi-sleep state. They told me then that we would be staying the night and were moving us as soon as they had a bed ready. Then dad could back and see him too.



They settled us into a observation room. He was not admitted into the hospital. It is called a 24 hour watch. It is billed differently and makes it easier to leave. We held him for a while and just hung out. We decided to go for a walk and put him in a wagon. We pulled him around the whole hospital. We started with the 4th floor and were able to visit one of our old nurses from the NICU. She came out and saw him. Then we continued walking the halls, floor by floor. When we got back, he took more pain meds and feel asleep. We were able to relax a bit more when we got a surprise.
The doctors had been monitoring him all day and felt that he didn't need to stay. He was holding up his oxygen and handling all his pain medication fine. So about 5:00 we headed home. This is right before we left the hospital.
He did fine in the car, but didn't fall asleep. When we got home he was obviously in some pain, so we gave him more meds and he fell asleep on me. He slept for about 2 hours.

Colton did throw up 2 times. We started feeding him a little bit. Not much of an appetite, but he took it. I rocked him and rocked him and finally was able to lay him in his bed just after midnight. I went to sleep and woke up to check on him often. He started crying about 3:30 am and Phil took him for the rest of the night. They both slept for some of it, but mostly he just sat with Phil. At 7:00 I took a turn. He wanted to get down, so I let him and he decided to play and walk around. He picked up blankets and toys. He crawled up and down the stairs. He would come back and take a bite of food, then walk away. His balance was good. He even smiled.

He settled down for a nap and has now been in bed for just over 2 hours. When he wakes up we will give him a little bath, from the neck down and take off the "princess Leah" head gear. Then if we can stomach it, we will take a look at the incision. I can tell that he isn't back to normal and we will keep him drugged up for the rest of the day, but I have been so worried about how he would be after the surgery. It is so hard to decide to put your child through such a major surgery. I love to see him up and walking around. And I love that he is still making noises and banging spoons on metal chairs to see if he can hear it. And I love having the hope, that he will soon be able to hear it. Now Colton gets to heal. And on Sept.1, he is scheduled to be turned on. And we will start the next part of this journey.