It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's Super Joe!

He never ceases to amaze us.  He had to stop eating and drinking 8 hours before he went under and it really did not seem to bother him as he gave the nice lady in registration his big smile, which comes with a side of two perfect dimples.

It will be a year in June that Joey had his open heart surgery and it seemed surreal to be back in a hospital going through all these steps again.  Checking in.  Getting assigned a room.  Getting a hospital gown to dress him in.

I am still in awe at how smoothly the day went.  We met with a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner, a child life specialist (AMAZING!!!), the anesthesiologist and we spoke with his ENT who was in the OR with him.

At every single step of the way, someone was there to explain to us what was going to happen, how it was going to happen and when it would happen.  Through it all, Super Joe charmed their socks off.  He hadn't eaten or drank (the thickener counts as a solid, so he couldn't even have "clear" liquids that morning) in about 8 hours, but you would never know it as he smiled at each new person we met.

He is so much bigger now!  So much older.  Every day I realize he is not a "baby" at all anymore.  He is really becoming a little boy.   A wonderful "Child Life Specialist" came in and had Tom and I put on surgical hats, she brought the "gas" mask for Joey to examine and she practiced putting it on his face.  She was incredible.  She helped to de-sensitize him to what would be happening, but I think she mostly helped me and Tom.

Because this was not an invasive procedure (other than being put under general anesthesia), the stress was not nearly as high. However, because this is almost a year later he is so much more aware of what is going on and when they came back and said it was time for him to go back, I panicked for a minute.  I wanted to pop him back in the stroller and hit the road.  But Joey was being Super Joe and he didn't cry when we put in him the stranger's arms.

For about 2 1/2 hours we waited out in the waiting room with Tom's mom.  After the first 20 minutes, the doctor came out and said his tubes were still in and that his ear structure looks great.  Finally, our pagers went off and the audiologist came out to talk to us about the findings of the ABR.


They cleaned out a bunch of wax from both ears and they suctioned a bunch of "goo" from him nasal passage.  She said his right ear was perfect-- WOO HOO!!!!!  She told us about his left ear, which has "moderate" hearing loss at some levels.  From what we could understand there is mild, moderate and severe.  For now, we aren't going to need hearing aides and we are just going to follow up every six months.  She told us about possible surgeries down the road after he is 7.  She told us about a "soft band" hearing thing that goes around the head that little ones sometimes wear that is eventually implanted permanently into the side of the head.  Things we aren't going to worry about for today.  For today, he made it through and we couldn't wait to see him.


Finally, we got the second page that meant it was time to go back to recovery.

Super Joe was so very tired.  The nurses in recovery were so sweet.  They didn't want to give him up because he was such a warm, cuddly snuggle bug, but I had to get him back in my arms.

We were in Recovery 1 for about 45 minutes and then we got moved to Recovery 2 where we stayed for about an hour while he came out of the anesthesia.  It felt so good to get him back in our arms.


We're so proud of you Super Joe!


Happy Weekend!  Have your babies made you proud this week?  Give them an extra squeeze!