Surgery Day - Tuesday April 27th

The big day arrived and I had to give William his last feed at 7.30 am as he would be put under a General Anaesthetic. We left Lexie and Sophie with Gran and drove into the hospital at 10.30 am and were shown to the Childrens Ward. We had a nurse that did all the final checks, he weighed 6.1 Kilos (massive for a 7 week old baby) and he measured 62 cms. We were so thankful that he took a dummy (mum had persevered the 2 days prior to get him to take one) as he was not allowed to feed again until after the operation. We were told he was going to be taken away at 11.30am to be prepped for the operation but 11.30 am came and went, so did 12 noon and then 12.30 pm then 1 pm and finally about 1.30 pm we were taken up to the theatre meeting room where we waited for Dr Small. He finally arrived about 2 pm and while we were waiting we had been visited by a couple of other people that would be going in to watch and learn from Dr Small. PHPV is very rare and I'm not totally sure if any other babies have been diagnosed with this condition in Welington or NZ for that matter so there were a few people that were interested in this surgery! By this stage William had slept and sucked on that dummy all day in Dad’s arms and didn’t cry once, he was being soooo good. The nurse then took him away to be put under the general. Dr Small had asked if we wanted to come up to theatre to see him before they operated and show us what they were going to do so we had to dress in some surgical gear and then we were led up to theatre. As I walked into the room there he was so peaceful lying there asleep with a sheet pulled right up to his nose. There were a dozen or so people in the room but I didn't really notice as I wanted to check he was actually alive. I asked the Anaethetist if he was while looking at the machines to make sure his heart was still beating. We were then told what they were going to do then left and told to be back in the children’s ward in an hour. We went to have some lunch in the hospital café and sat chatting trying to keep our minds off what was happening up there. Back in the Children’s ward we waited and waited (the waiting was the worst part for us) and at about 4 pm we finally got the call from the Dr. The Dr spoke to me and said the operation went better than expected and that he would be waking up soon. We were so happy and relieved that everything had gone ok and were dying to see him. The nurse came and got us and walked us up to theatre and as we were walking up there I said "I never want to come here again!" Then there he was in a nurses arms with all these other nurses looking and cooing at him. Next minute he was in my arms still quite groggy from the anaethestic and I hopped onto a bed and fed him while being wheeled back to the Children’s Ward. His eye wasn’t patched but I did notice an arrow above the operated eye! The Dr came about 6 pm but I can’t remember what he said as it was such an emotional day! We were suppose to stay in the hospital overnight but they let us go home so we left and came home very tired from the days events. He was such a good little boy and that night he slept quite well considering his tragic day - and this was only the beginning. I look back now and think the surgery was actually the easy part its the rehabilitation of working on getting sight in the right eye which is the hard part.