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Sasha, my newly adopted 4 year old son, went into Surgery yesterday. It was a minor surgery. Lets see if I can phrase this appropriately.
He had aiming issues. Any attempt to write his name in the snow would have dampened his shoes since the hole was in the wrong spot. This also resulted in only partial growth of a certain type of skin that is ritually removed by some religions. This resulted in a risk of infection, so the doctors removed the skin to patch up his plumbing.
Now he should be all good. In fact, at 6:00am the doctor came into the room, removed the catheter, and said, "just as soon as he uses the bathroom, you can take him home."
10 hours later, with lots of incoming fluids, there was no bathroom.
Then the doctor said those seven words which will make any man cringe. "Time to put the Catheter back in."
He was in severe pain. They didn't want to give him morphine because it would make urinating more difficult. So my wife and I held his hands and wiped away his tears and they put the catheter back in.
We will try it all again tomorrow. Hopefully by then the swelling will have gone down enough to open up the plumbing. Any good wishes/prayers/thoughts/etc will be appreciated just in case.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Poor kid; that doesn't sound like much fun. Are you able to communicate with him well enough to convey what is going on and why? Does he feel bonded enough to you guys, yet, that he's turning to you for comfort in this? I hope so, on both counts.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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On the plus side, it's great that he has parents now who can have this operation done for him, and can hold him and comfort him while he heals.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Oh, Dan, I'm sorry. Our son will need to have a very similar surgery. I have been putting it off. He has already been through two terrible ordeals twice as they tried to stretch the urethra open with topical (and I might add entirely insufficent) anesthesia, but both times failed to make permanent, sufficent improvement.
This is a hard time. Hopefully the hardest is over now.
Posts: 7050 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Having a kid who has required several surgeries in the same region, I empathize with you, Dan. I trust all will go well, but well-wishes and prayers are on their way nonetheless.
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Ouch! That sounds pretty painful. Best wishes to Sasha. I'm sure it's great for him to have parents to comfort him.
Posts: 3546 | Registered: Jul 2002
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A friend of mine underwent a similar surgery at 11 years old. He gets teased a lot by some of the kids in our school because of the nature of the surgery, but he seems to not be affected. It's good that it happened young for Sasha, not that its a good thing either way. I hope he does well.
Sasha is learning English at an extrodinary rate. We take very well, probably at about a 2 or 3 year old level. Verbs and tenses are limited, but nouns are expanding dailly. Whenever he truly understands a new word I've explained to him, he makes this very adult, almost cosmically signifigant sound of, "ahhhh".
So yes, he knows who we are. He reaches for us when he is in pain. He just has trouble telling us exactly what hurts.
Finally, the doctor this morning gave us two choices. We could stay in the hospital one more night and see if the swelling went down, or we could take him home for the Labor Day weekend, and have them remove it on Tuesday.
We are checking with our local experts, but we will probably take him home, and just be careful of the catheter all weekend.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Glad to hear that he's bonded with you guys, and that his English is coming along so well! Are you guys learning Russian too?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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