surgery day

A quick update before my eyes roll back in my head and my face collapses onto the keyboard.  It was a long day and I am e x h a u s t e d.

The surgery itself went as well as the surgeon could have expected.  He didn't go into a whole lot of detail but he did say that when he saw how large the hernia was he was a little taken aback.  He apparently didn't wake up expecting to see what he did.  They initially told us to expect an hour and a half to two hours for total surgery time but Alex and I nervously watched the clock tick past two hours, then three hours, and finally at the four hour mark the anesthesiologist came and led us back to the recovery room.  Cale was already awake and, rightfully so, very scared.  I laid with him in the bed to try and calm him as much as I could but I think it was the third dose of morphine that finally was able to put him at ease.  The surgeon explained to us that the size of the hernia was what increased the surgery time and apparently it was quite the battle to get his stomach back down where it should be.  He affirmed us by saying we absolutely did the right thing and that this surgery was 100% necessary.  Whew!

When we left Cale tonight (my mom is staying with him) his pain was seemingly under control but he spent the majority of the afternoon incredibly uncomfortable.  He has been getting doses of morphine every hour and will continue with that plan through the night.  Hopefully by tomorrow we can start backing off on the pain meds.  One concern is he has yet to produce a wet diaper even though he has been on a constant drip of fluids since surgery.  We're hoping it's just taking awhile for his systems to wake back up from the anesthesia but it's definitely something to be mindful of.

An encouraging thing that happened was that Cale was able to eat a few ice chips.  One of the many cons of this surgery is that swallowing can be incredibly difficult during the first six to eight weeks after surgery, but Cale seemed to tolerate the ice chips without too much hassle.  I'm hoping the same ease carries over into swallowing food.

We made it - the surgery is finally behind us.  After today I am realizing the recovery process is going to be harder than expected but thankfully we have a giant sized support system to help us along the way.  We had several people come and sit with us while Cale was in surgery and I can't even begin to describe what a blessing that was, especially since the surgery time went well beyond what we expected.  My mom drove in from Billings and will be staying the night with Cale tonight and tomorrow night and then Alex's biological mom from Seattle will stay with him the remainder of the nights.  Alex's bonus mom, Leslie, has also made herself available to be with Cale and help with Riley whenever needed.  Others have offered to keep Riley entertained while we focus on Cale and Alex and I get to come home to a cooked meal each day.  We are so blessed.

The "church" is much more than a building for people to enter.  The "church" is a group of people shedding God's love upon others by they themselves showing love to other people.  I can't think of a better testimony of Christ's sacrifice for us on the cross than lovingly meeting the needs of other people.  Our family has been no stranger to the kindness of others and I can't even begin to express my gratefulness for such a loving and caring support of people.

More tomorrow!  Also, Cale would love to have visitors so please feel free to text my phone if you want to stop on by. :)