A Journey to Independence

The last 48 hours have been busy to say the least.  From late admissions, to the bowel prep, let's just say sleep has been little, but poop has been plenty.  My SB peeps will understand this dilemma. 

A little pre-admission snack en route to CHOP...a chocolate frosted donut made the little guy very happy.  Little did he know that was his last solid food for many, many days.

We finally checked in on Tuesday January 24 at around 2:45 p.m.  A little mix up in admissions caused a late check-in.  Once the paperwork was settled, we headed up to his room at 4 South 14.  We met his awesome nurse Brielle  wristbands were put on and away we went.  It was IV time which means hot packs to plump up his sleepy veins.

 

 

Next was to get dressed in some lovely hospital grade gear and start drinking to begin the bowel prep.  This is by far the worst part.  He had to drink 8 oz. every 10 minutes.  One would like to think they would flavor this for kids, but no.  It was awful.  Jarrett said many times it tasted like stinky feet.  He powered through and drank 3/4 of a gallon of this by midnight.  The only way to describe what takes place after drinking as disgusting.  He had to drink till how bowels were as clear as water.  We did not achieve this until close to 3 a.m.  It was the crappiest night ever....literally.

 

 

 

For anyone who has ever stayed at a hospital, there is no sleeping.  People are in and out all hours poking and prodding, so there was little sleep had by Jarrett or myself.  Surgery was scheduled for 7 a.m.  We had our wake up visit from urology around 5:30 a.m.  Jarrett had a delivery from his brother and we snapped an early morning selfie with Mommy and some cuddles with Daddy as we headed down to pre-op.  Thumbs up is always his way of saying he is ready for what lies ahead.

 

Surgery lasted 10 hours.  Daddy and I had hourly updates and a very long day trying to stay busy while we waited for our boy to return to our loving arms.  Dr. Zderic came out at about 7:30 p.m. to bring Jaguar to us.  Apparently, Jaguar was having some issues and required the same surgery as Jarrett.  For anyone that does not know. Jaguar is the little mans favorite stuffed animal and he goes everywhere Jarrett is permitted to take him.  Thankfully CHOP allowed Jaguar in the OR. One of the many reasons we love and trust this place.  HOPE truly does live here.