The night before Halloween, my husband and I noticed something about our 10 year old son. His left testicle was three times the size it should be. My husband thought that it could possibly be a hernia, but he wasn't sure.
Flash forward to Halloween day. After school was out for the day, we took our son to our family doctor. After what seemed like forever waiting for the doctor, he came in and took one look and verified what my husband thought. My 10 year old son had a Inguinal Hernia and the only way to repair it was surgery.
By Monday morning, my son was experiencing pain from the hernia. As directed by our doctor, we went straight to the emergency room. After spending four hours at the hospital, we went across the street to the general surgeons office. Surgery was scheduled for the following morning.
Day of surgery. We got up at 5:00 in the morning. For those that know me, this is not normal and I am not a morning person. We took our 7 year old to a friend, stopped for some gas and coffee, then headed back to the hospital. Check-in was at 6:00 and then back into a pre-op room. My son is such a brave and strong boy. There were no tears until the IV was put in. After the IV, things went quickly. We met all the staff that would be in surgery with our son and then they were wheeling him away to surgery.
The waiting room was torture. I tried doing a word search, but that didn't last long. I tried playing solitaire on my phone, but that also didn't last long. I took a short cat-nap. My husband paced the floor. After what seemed like forever, they finally came out to let us know how surgery went. The doctor said he pulled through like a champ. He also told us that our son had been hiding the hernia from us for quite some time.
Then more waiting for him to come out of recovery and into a post-op room. Then more waiting for them to discharge us. We finally got to go home about 5 hours after we arrived. And now the recovery time starts.
There is nothing worse as a parent than watching them wheel one of your babies off to surgery. The waiting time that your child is gone is excruciating. Your nerves are shot, your anxiety high. Then once the surgery is over and it's time for recovery, you have to tell them no when you really want to say yes. Trying to keep an active kid down is no small task.
So tonight, hug your kids tight and tell them you love them. There is nothing better than being a parent.
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