Owen's Surgery

At just seven months of age our little Owen had to have his first surgery, on December 14th.  It was very routine and didn't seem to bother him too much, but a surgery none-the-less.  It was basically a circumcision with a little added twist.  When he was born we were told he had a shortened foreskin so he couldn't have the procedure done at the hospital like all the other baby boys.  What that meant was that the foreskin didn't go all the way around the tip.  He also had a ligament on the underneath part of his penis that kept it bent downwards instead of being straight.  We had to wait until he was at least six months to do the correction to allow all the hormones to settle down after birth but surgery was also required because otherwise once he hit puberty the penis would curve even more!  What the surgeon had to do was basically remove the foreskin, clip the ligament and add the skin to the base of the penis using disolvable stitches. 

The surgery was done at Children's in Minnetonka and it was a very nice place.  This was our first time being at a Children's hospital, and, while we had a good experience, I hope we never have to go back!  I think what I was most nervous for was keeping Owen with an empty stomach long enough.  We gave him a big dinner the night before, then I woke him to feed him 4oz of formula around 3 a.m. and then just an ounce of water at 7.  We arrived at Children's about 8:30 and were surprised that he wasn't screaming for food the entire way there.  He wasn't really even fussy while we were waiting!

Look at the cute little PJ's they gave Owen to change into!

 

 

And then, of course, plenty of time to play while we waited for the surgery to begin!

Around 9:30 or so a nurse took Owen from us.  We didn't get to be there during the start of the anesthesia which was probably a good idea.  The waiting room had this neat screen where the parents could track their child's progress through the surgery.  Owen's the fourth line down with the 5/8/2012 birth date!  We were surprised how fast the whole thing took.  I just finished addressing Christmas card envelopes and we were being called back that he was awake!

Owen was a little riled up coming out of surgery.  I got a bottle ready for him but didn't really want to drink much until he got some pain meds working.  He slept a bit in my arms and we finally left around 12:30.  We had to put an extra diaper on him to provide extra padding in the car seat.  We also were sent home a tube of bacitracin to apply at diaper changes to keep everything moist.

John and I were hungry so we stopped for lunch and shared a little with Owen for being such a good patient!  He absolutely loved both the pickle and the ice cream!

 

 

We did get a prescription for pain meds filled.  We gave it to him the first day but by the second day he was off because it really upset his tummy and he kept spitting up.  Tylenol did the trick and by the middle of the next week we were off that too!  He started army crawling again the day after surgery.  It's gonna take more than a little circumcision to keep this guy down!  Stitches appear to be dissolving nicely and everything looks healed!