We're home! Made it home Sunday evening. What a trip. We actually went down on Saturday, October 29th to celebrate Clayton's birthday early in case he was in the hospital later. We camped at Fort Wilderness and enjoyed a character dinner with Clayton and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (our only visit to a park). And on Halloween day we relaxed in Fort Wilderness and enjoyed the festivities while cruising around the Fort in a golf cart. More on that brief vacation side of the trip in another post though.
After two days of forgetting our reality, it was back to business on November 1st. George, Clayton and I went to Arnold Palmer and did pre-admission paperwork and testing and then went to see the doctor. While I had previously met this urologist, George had not. I was glad he got the opportunity to see what I saw. This doctor is a rare one. You just know he is special when you meet him. I think it made George feel better meeting the man who's hands would be doing such important work on our child, especially because George wouldn't be there. Since George is getting a new boss and all, we decided it was best for him to come home and for my mom to stay with me (my mom and stepdad joined us on the trip...but stayed in a cabin as opposed to camping). So George left the day before the surgery.
Once at the hospital,I asked Clayton to smile and this is what I got...
The reality was this...
He was mad at me and shaking he was so nervous. Once out of surgery, it was a slooooowwwwwwww process waking up. I had to try getting him dressed and everything just to get him even slightly awake.
But once he woke up, it wasn't long until we saw this...
and then the fevers started. Yes I say fevers because they came a went a bit as we battled them with Tylenol. Then my mom went back to the camper and I stayed the night with Clayton. I kept trying to encourage him to pee, but he was obviously in pain and wouldn't in the beginning. Finally, I put him to bed hoping if I woke him up a while later he would be so groggy, he would not think abut the pain. It kind of worked. He legitimately tried to pee I felt, but didn't get more than a drop out. This was 12 hours after surgery in the middle of the night. Sadly, this meant we had to do a catheter. We had two nurses try and God help, all I could do was tell Clayton how sorry I was. I felt so horrible. I have never felt that crumby with him before. He has come so far and has such a heightened awareness of everything around him and he does truly try to cooperate for things and after all of his cooperation to have to turn around and do this made me feel like total shit. I started bawling while holding him down and repeating over and over how sorry I was. The nurses probably thought this is why we don't want parents around; they can't handle it. A sentiment we have heard expressed before. Completely untrue though. I can't tell you how many times I have had to hold that child down while he screamed over ports, catheters, you name it. And bawling is not a normal part of my routine. This time was different. It felt like Clayton had held up his end of the bargain and somehow I had dropped the ball on mine; even though I know that wasn't the case. Of all the things we do with Clayton and all the things he now cooperates with, he remembers catheters from the past and wants his "boyhood" left alone. Doctors can't even look at it without him getting all protective. So to put him through another catheter really sucked. The only reason he came out of surgery without one was because the doctor felt things went so smoothly he wouldn't need it. Which was not the doctors fault. Clayton did not need a catheter with his last stent replacement so there was no reason to assume he would need it now. Also, our urologists have commented that they like to be cautious about stents and catheters because sometimes catheters can get caught on the stent and dislodge it.
So anyway, the first night post-op (which if I forgot to mention we obviously spent in the hospital) was a rough one between fevers and catheters. Oh, I never finished...neither nurse could get the catheter in, so the doctor came in around 2 in the morning and placed the catheter himself. So Clayton had to go through that "trauma" essentially three times. Not fun for either of us. While waiting on the doctor, Clayton and I went back to his room and I just started bawling bawling. The kind where you can't even help being loud cause your crying so hard. I felt like total crap for having to do this with him after he had been such a champ about everything. Thankfully, when the doctor got there, he placed a catheter swiftly and that was done. I don't know the logistics, but for some reason, Clayton is hard to place a catheter in. This was not the first time nurses couldn't get it and doctors had to be called in.
The next day while waiting to see if we would be discharged, his ViVi got him this...
We had no idea if we would be discharged or not because he had started getting sick the night before surgery and it had progressed. We weren't sure if they would try and hold him for that or not. Then he went a spiked a fever when they were preparing discharge. But they still let us go, knowing we were staying locally for his continued recovery.
So back to the camper, Clayton got to be surrounded by all of his "bay-bees". Sweet bug just laid there with the discomfort of his catheter. We hung out for another day, which was incredibly long as we were stuck in a camper unable to do anything. Sunday, we cautiously headed home. A journey that was not without it's bumps including some vomiting for Clayton. All in all, the journey looked something like this...
An interesting ride to be sure, but Clayton was happy to be headed home.
I got to remove the catheter just before bed Sunday night and we had pee first thing Monday morning! We have since been recovering from an emotionally charged past month and especially past week. Clayton is still sick and I'm trying to get him well so we are laying low at home.
And of course tonight all eyes in our house are on the election results. Crazy times. On election night eight years ago, I was in the hospital giving birth to Clayton and my life changed forever. I'm a little scared to see what tonight brings given how dramatically my life changed last time we had a new president (even though it wasn't purely because of a new president, but rather because of my baby man).
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