About a year and a half ago, Chase was diagnosed with bilateral trigger thumb. We waited a year to see if it would correct itself (most cases do not) and when it did not, we scheduled the surgery back in September.
Once we had the date set, I began to get so nervous. The surgery really snuck up on us, and he finally had it done last week on October 25th.
Chase was SO BRAVE! We had to be at the surgery center at 8:30 am and he couldn't eat anything that morning. He never complained. He simply woke up and said, "Well, I guess I can't eat breakfast!"
We prepped him about three days in advance. He knew that one day we would be getting his "thumbs fixed" and they would feel better and not hurt when he played certain things. (Overall his thumbs were not severe and did not interfere with his daily activities, school work, fine and gross motor, etc. But every now and then he would be playing with a toy or doing something and would complain that it hurt his thumbs. We understood this to be the thumbs locking/tightening up, so we wanted to have them fixed before Kindergarten and before things such as his pencil grip were well defined.)
I was very nervous about how he would react, so I did a lot of online research and talked to friends who are physicians to know what type of language to use and what to avoid. The night we told him he was SO funny, actually jumping off his bed and saying, "Yay, I wanna do it in the morning!" Perhaps I made it sound too appealing?!
He really was so brave. Once we got checked in we had a bit of a wait before going back. We then went back to a pre-op area where they took his vitals and marked the surgery locations on his thumbs. He was then given a gown, socks and hat to change into. Wes and I were very nervous but tried our best to keep things light and humorous for Chase. He brought two friends, a stuffed monkey and Pooh bear. The nurses who went back with him were amazing. They even put bandages on his friends just like his and they also wore little surgery caps. :) Once he was ready and we had talked with the anesthesiologist they wheeled him back.
That's when I said "Can I cry now?!" It was hard to see him in such a vulnerable state. It helped that he never cried, and they only had to give him gas to make him "sleepy." No IV, no intubation needed. We were away from him for about 25 minutes before meeting with the surgeon and then getting to see him. We saw him almost immediately after he woke up. The nurse said the first thing he said upon waking up was, "Hey, can I watch a movie now?" :) They came through on their promise of a movie while in recovery. He was definitely a little tired acting, but after having some apple juice and some crackers, we were free to leave!
Chase did great with his recovery. It was amazing to see how well he adapted to eating, for example...holding his utensils with his fingers and playing with toys almost right away. We took it easy with movies that first day, and aside from one dose of Lortab and some Tylenol before bed that night, he never had anything else for pain. He was VERY hyper, but being inside all weekend and not being able to let out all of his wiggles made it understandable! He even went back to school on Monday! He can't get his hands wet, and his teachers have been AMAZING at helping him and keeping him from overdoing things while at school.
He wore the bandages until Monday night and now just wears band aids over the dissolvable stitches. We will go for a follow up appointment this Thursday to see how things look.
Mimi watched Will that morning and Grandma was in town too for an appointment!
Check out his cool Star Wars and Ninja Turtle Band-Aids!
enjoying a post-surgery milkshake
We are so glad this is behind us, and blessed that it was not something serious.
Chase, we are so proud of you. You are such a big, brave boy!
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