Henry Goes to the Hospital

Henry had a minor procedure done last week. Here's a quick backstory. We had elected to have him circumcised in the hospital and the procedure was incomplete, meaning there was a little bit more trimming that needed to happen. After months of debating whether or not we should do the procedure now or wait till he's 16 and let him decide, we choose to go ahead and correct it.

We met with Dr. Lerman, a Pediatric Urologist at UCLA Medical. He explained, this surgery is very common and is often required when boys as large as he was are circumcised at birth. I was reassured he'd be in no pain. When the day of the surgery rolled around, my husband, Gary, had to go out of town for business. Thankfully, my mother had flown in to visit and she and I went together. I took photos of everything and ran out my battery sending video to Gary in New York so he could be a part of the process.

It's pretty cool and effortless so I thought I'd share it on this blog. I'd never seen a baby go through a procedure before and wish I had been able to see footage to allay any fear I had going into it.An another note: There's quite a bit of debate lately around whether or not to circumcise. I thought it'd be helpful for other moms making that decision to see.

Without further ado... here's Henry at 6AM getting wheeled into the curtained area where they will prep him for surgery.

This is his robe.

Here Henry is about to change into his robe.

Ok. we've got the robe on. Now it's time to put a bracelet around his ankle and confirm that he is indeed Henry Gold. It would not be a good thing if the UCLA mixed up patients and gave him an appendectomy by mistake.

So here we are putting the bracelet on him. They've also given him a sedative to keep him calm. He's doing really well as he hasn't had anything to eat or drink since the night before and he's still in good spirits.

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The sedative has kicked in and Henry (we call him Boombie) is feeling awesome! Babies make the cutest drunks.

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He's loving up Nana. And Nana is loving him.

And now it's time to check his oxygen levels. We had a difficult time getting a high enough number and this is where I started to get nervous. He's not getting enough oxygen! Someone do something! My head is starting to spin but the nurses don't seem to think it's a problem. He's just moving around too much. We finally get a 97. Not quite high enough but under the circumstances, it'll do.

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As you can see he's still throughly enjoying his sedative. The Dr's and Nurses were very impressed with his enthusiasm under a sedative. Is this telling? I really think I'm going to have to lock the cough syrup up until he's 36.

He actually tried to throw himself off the bed. Thankfully, my hand was ready to catch him. Oh boy.

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More fun with Nana

Fun with mommy.

Fun with the nurses.

And we're off to the procedure room! I ask Dr. Lerman to let me stay until he falls asleep. I don't know why but I need to see that he's relaxed and at peace before he has his trim done.

Here's Henry on the table. All hooked up to lot of tubes and wires. As you can see he's still relaxed and very trusting of the people around him.

And here he is examining a cord while everyone gets organized.

As UCLA is a teaching hospital, they had a resident anesthesiologist place the mask on his face. It took a bit of adjustment but she got it and worked well under pressure.

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At this point I left and went to the waiting room to play cards with my mom for the next hour. As time ticked on I became more and more anxious. Strange disturbing thoughts began to enter my mind. My mom kept me focused on the game and we joked around quite a bit to relieve the tension. Finally I got a call from the nurses station that Henry was in recovery and we could go back.

Here he is. Still asleep.

Waking up was not fun for him. He couldn't get comfortable and he was hungry.

Finally they let me give him a bottle of water. Look at the gratitude in his eyes. Babies are so pure. After having 8oz of water, he wanted something a little more substantial. So we gave him a bottle of formula, which he promptly threw up all over me.

That afternoon, evening and the following day he slept more than usual. I've got a really good sleeper, I think it was my first demand as a mother. Go to sleep!

The following afternoon he was back to his old self again. No tylenol. No pain. I hope he doesn't have any more surgeries but if he does, I hope they all go as painlessly and easily as this one did. Lots of thanks to Dr. Lerman and the staff at UCLA Medical for taking such great care of my son!