Time for the G-Tube

Grant's G-Tube surgery was scheduled for 3/27/13.  The day before my dad and I took Grant to church with us.  I'm not a very religious person, but we asked the priest to do a special blessing for Grant.  The priest said a little prayer about guiding the doctors during Grant's surgery.  I figured it wouldn't hurt anything to have some extra prayers!

The day of Grant's surgery we woke up early and left for Riley at 5:30am.  The trip down there was uneventful and the check in process went fast.  They called us back and asked me a bunch of questions about Grant's health and current medications.  We met with the anesthesiologist, the pediatric surgeon, and the neurologist (he had a spinal tap done to check for rare, but treatable neurological disorders).  We signed a bunch of consent forms and had plenty of time to have the doctors answer our questions.  We took off his clothes and took a picture of his beautiful belly, and then another picture of him in his surgery gown.

We checked in at the waiting area and then headed down the the McDonald's in the lobby.  We were grabbing a drink and a small snack when I got a call from the surgeon saying that the g-tube was in and everything was good.  He told us the neurologist still had to finish his procedure and it should only be another half hour.  We headed upstairs and continued our wait in the waiting area.

Finally, they called us back and we were in a large recovery room with many other children.  I got to hold Grant and he was pretty sleepy and fussy.  After about a half an hour we were able to move to our individual room.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the room because it was nicer than my recovery room after having Grant.  It had two TVs, a DVD player, and a video game system!

Grant was pretty sleepy the first day, and he was also in pain when you moved him (to change diapers).  I felt terrible for him.  The first night was pretty rough too.  He cried a ton!  I think now he might have been hungry because they only did half feeds for him that night after surgery.  He was a completely different boy after we fed him the next day.

Things have still been a little rough during the nights, but he has been acting completely fine during the day since the day after surgery.  His bowels aren't quite as regular as they used to be.  I'm not sure if it has to do with the surgery, getting more to eat, or that we changed from Pediasure to Nutren Jr.  I'm hoping that things get regulated soon.

I really do think that he seems more engaged and interested in toys now.  He is making more vocalizations too.  I'm not sure if I'm not reading too far into his behaviors, or wanting to see a change in him, but I really do think that a change is there.  Time will tell more, but either way, I still think it was the right decision!