Isaac’s Surgery

For anyone wondering why Isaac needed surgery,  here are some pictures.  He has what is called a trigger thumb.  A good explanation of that can be found here.  I took these pictures last night in hopes that it would be the last time we saw his thumb like that.  Rebekah was a little concerned as she overheard a conversation about the surgery the day before, but after I explained everything to her she wasn’t so nervous, just wanted to come with me to make sure he was going to be all right.  I told her that she couldn’t go with us so she drew Isaac a card to help him feel better, and I told her I would give it to him after he came out of the surgery.

Everything went very well this morning.  We made it down there in time (even though I took a couple of wrong turns).  Isaac did really well for being up so early, he only had one grumpy moment when he was supposed to change into the gown they had brought him.  I took off his shirt and he put up a fight and said, “I don’t want to wear the green shirt.”  I was a little surprised as green is his favorite color, but I guess pastel green is NOT his favorite.  So the nurse told me not to worry about it he didn’t need to wear it he could just go shirtless, and we just wrapped him up in a blanket instead.  After filling out the paperwork and speaking to the doctors and nurses, the anesthesiologist took Isaac in his arms and walked back with him to the surgery room while the nurse wheeled the bed after them.    I sat down in the waiting room at 6:30AM and by 7 the doctor came out to let me know that the surgery had gone pretty well.  There was a chance that the tendons and muscles might not release as they had been in that position for so long, but the doctor said that as soon as he snipped the ligament sheath the thumb instantly straightened and he was able to straighten it almost all the way out.  He said the next step would be when we came back for his follow-up appointment to remove the bandages he would either show me some stretches and exercises to do on his thumb or possibly some therapy depending on how it looks at that time.  The doctor had told me he might put a cast on his hand to make sure the stitches didn’t get messed with, but he decided to just do a wrap instead.  It has to be treated just like a cast in any case (leave it on and don’t get it wet), but if it comes undone I have to call and take him down to the office to have it casted.

I sat down and waited about another 10-15 minutes before they took me back to recovery and saw this:

All the nurses were saying just how cute he was.  The nice thing was that they put him under before putting in his IV so he doesn’t even remember that.  I was most worried about that part so that was a relief for me.  It took about another half hour or so for him to fully wake up and then we took off for home.  He was really happy to go home and really like that they gave him a sucker for being such a good patient.  This is him when we got home still sleeping it off.  Poor thing didn’t even finish his sucker.  Once I brought him inside he was back to his old self playing and running around.  Amazing to me.  The one time I had general anesthesia I kept passing out on and off for the rest of the day.  The goofy guy wouldn’t let me get a good picture of his bandage so here’s the best I could do.