Surgery Day: Hours 1-2

Here we are! Ryan pulled Pierscen out of bed a little after 5 am and loaded him straight into this car seat. He hardly even woke up. About half way to Primary's he started cooing, but no crying. The last time he ate was around 9:30 pm, so we were grateful he hadn't realized he was hungry yet.

Check in took a while, but P was a champ. He was still pretty tired, but he didn't fuss. The nurse or tech that took us back to do his vitals had a little bit of a hard time with some of his measurements. She measured him at 22 inches long, but his feet were still hanging off the bed. Haha. Oh well. They had a difficult time getting his oxygen saturation to read on the monitor and showed he was kind of low, but the NP came in and redid it and he was just fine.

The plastic surgeon came in a few minutes later. "It looks like he put on a few pounds!" he announced. And indeed he has! He came in at 15.18. :) We did it! He had Ryan hold him so he could get some "before" pictures. As Ryan turned to face him, the doctor said, "Oh yeah. We have some good deformity there, don't we?" Hahahaha! Nothing like saying it how it is! It was just so funny considering when we met with the neurosurgeon he was so careful about how he said it. "Unusal" was the word he used. Oh well. No use in being offended. Ryan and I were laughing about it later and Ryan said comment, "Yup, our DNA made that." Hahahaha.

Here are our "before" pictures. You can really see how far the skull on the right side has recessed. Notice how you can see his right eye, but his left forehead is bulged and blocking the view of even his left cheek. The after pictures are certainly going to be something! Typically they just shave a strip from ear to ear, but I asked the doctor to shave the whole head so that it would all grow back together. I think he was relieved to have me ask that because he said it is far easier that way. Then you don't have to worry about hair getting in the way of the sutures and it is easier to keep the incision clean.



Pierscen was a very good, patient boy. He didn't get fussy until literally moments before the Anesthesiologist took him back. And even then he was just starting to wiggle and wimper. What a good kid!

The first phone update came around 9:20. The nurse said that even though he started to act fussy on the way back, she had him laughing and smiling once they got in the room. He went to sleep well, was staying warm, vitals looked good, blood loss wasn't too bad, but the anesthesiologist was hanging a bag of blood anyway to keep things good.

The Neurosurgeon just came out to talk to us. Removing the skull is the most dangerous part. He said that there was some deep skull deformities that were surprising - nothing that we see on the surface - but that they are prepared for it. They said part of it was really REALLY thick and required some extra drilling, but it all went well. There were three small tears in the dura that he sutured back up, but the extra layer beneath that - like a layer of suran wrap - is just fine. The brain looks perfect. We asked what sort of deformaties he meant and he said that there is part of the skull that is normally located behind the ear that was pulled up near the forehead. ?!? Crazy! Amazingly, once everything is reshaped and they piece it back together, mother nature will pull it back where it is supposed to be. Totally nuts. He estimated another 2-3 hours.

Things are going really well. I am completely at peace. I know it is the strength offered through the faith, prayer, and fasting of many. Thank you.