Our Brave Boy
It felt so early, but the surgery center waiting room was buzzing when we arrived. Charlie was excited by the new toys! He enjoyed playing while we waited a short while to go back to the preop area.
Once back there he was given a gown and a bracelet was put on his ankle. We hung out for a bit in our little room and met nurses, anesthesia, and finally our surgeon came by to briefly go over it all with us. Charlie grew hungry and restless as we waited. Eventually, he grabbed his diaper bag and figured out how to open the door and told us bye bye!
When they were ready, I carried Charlie as our nurse led the way to the OR. I held him as they made sure all was set and laid him on the bed and held his hand as she put a mask on his face and his eyes quickly drifted shut. He wasn't happy about being put down and his foot firmly planted on the nurse's chest trying to kick her out of the way! Once he was sleeping, I left so they could all get started. 
We were moved to his postoperative room to wait. Aaron was already there with a timer counting down the hour before they would bring an update. Mobile devices kept us occupied while we waited and the hour went quickly. Our nurse, Joy, brought us news that they were finishing up and Charlie did great. Dr. Lourie came soon to let us know it went smoothly. He removed the extra finger and straightened the curved one as planned. Not long after, Charlie was wheeled in sleeping hard. Seeing his precious face sleeping so peacefully gave us such relief. He slept on for 30 minutes and the nurse felt we needed to wake him. 
He woke up and was immediately given to me to nurse. He stayed camped out there for quite a while! At some point, he became aware of the cast covering his entire arm and began to cry hard as he made efforts to pull it off. I guess the surgeon was right about little ones getting the cast off if it wasn't all the way up! The nurse was great and assured us all was normal as he fought everything. Quickly we were set to go home and ready to be on our way.
The rest of the afternoon was a mixture of peaceful nursing and dozing followed anger over his new situation. The pain medicine kept him from hurting and we were grateful for that. He kept his usual hearty appetite all day. He especially enjoyed the lasagna and cauliflower that Lovie and Pops brought us for dinner!
I had been worried about his sleep at night, but he slept about like normal. We stayed on schedule with his pain medicine to be sure he stayed comfortable and all was fine. He seems quite adjusted to the cast now and gets around fine with it. We go back for a two week postoperative appointment to check on the healing and will know more about how long the cast will be on.
We are so grateful to God for taking care of our sweet boy.
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