Johnny's Safe and Sound

On Thursday, the 19th, Johnny had an outpatient surgery at Tripler Hospital. Urologist, Dr, McMann, did a Hypospadias Repair on the poor guy. When he was born, we chose to have him circumcised. Well, the doctor started the circumcision, but stopped when he saw two openings. Yes, two holes for pee. Well, they may not both work. Anyhow - we went to see the urologist a few days later. She couldn't see anything because the started/stopped circumcision had made things a little swollen. So, a repair surgery isn't done until at least 4 months and this Dr. preferred 6-8 months. Not knowing what was going on with Brian and the USMC, she scheduled us for January 19th, just in case we did EAS in February. We visited twice between his birth and the actual surgery, each time she still couldn't see anything. The foreskin had scarred and made it impossible to pull back. So, on the morning of the 19th, we arrived at 6 a.m. My friend, Ashley, kept Galina for us. Thank you, Ashley!! 

At 7:45 a.m. the anesthesiologist took Johnny. That was very hard. Brian had given Johnny a blessing, with Sam Nunez, the night before, and the hospital Chaplain had come by and said a prayer with us too (I didn't make it through that one without tears) - so I felt calm. I felt immediate trust in Dr. McMann the first time we met her. I don't know why, but I did. I liked the anesthesiologist too. So strange, to trust people whom I've never met, with my baby boy - but I did. We spent three hours in the waiting room (I crocheted, and Brian walked back and forth to the store to buy me peanut m&ms) and each hour the assisting nurse called us to tell us how Johnny was doing. He did fantastic. At 11:30 Dr. McMann called us out of the waiting room to tell us how everything had gone. He did NOT in fact have two holes, but he did have one very large hole and the urethra (tube pee comes out of) did not come up to the tip as it should, so she circumcised him and used that skin to build up the urethra and close the opening a bit. I know, he's going to love me for this one day. 

I was able to go to him in the recovery room. He was wide awake, and a little hungry (hadn't eaten since 2:45 that morning!). He was happy as long as he was allowed to eat, or at least had the option to eat if he felt like it - he's a little nosy these days. We spent 30 minutes in the OR recovery room and then went to the discharge recovery room. He never cried. He fussed a bit when he first woke up from the anesthesia. He smiled at all of his nurses. He let them prod and pull on him. He was a trooper. 

We left the hospital around 1 p.m. with five different medications and an appointment for Saturday morning to get his bandage removed. The catheter won't come out until the 26th. He's doing great. Smiling, happy, talkative, still a wiggle-worm. Doesn't particularly enjoy the medicine, but doesn't cry when we give it to him, just tries to push your hands away and clenches his little gums shut.

He's also teething, so I won't lie, I think it's great timing for having tylenol and motrin...am I awful for saying that? 

Well, we didn't say anything when he was born. I don't know why - just didn't. Didn't tell anybody (okay, I can't keep anything from my Mom) and just felt like updating the blog with this so it's in the history books. One day, down the line, if someone's baby is born with it, they'll know it's possible that it's genetic. FYI - don't google hypospadias. Just take my word for it...

So, Johnny is good. Normal. Healthy. Happy. We're relieved that it's over, and grateful for the Priesthood and Brian's being worthy of it.