Massimo went in to surgery today at 2.15 pm. We were allowed to go with him to anaesthetics pre-op, I was allowed to carry him and hold him whilst he fell asleep, then we both kissed him and left. It was heartbreaking. No matter how much I know that this is the best thing that can be done for him, it was still very difficult to leave him there. Not surprisingly I was in tears!
We were called to the recovery room about 3 hours later. Although the actual operation only takes about 1 hour, between one thing and another, it always seems to take forever. In Massimo’s case they also decided to suture his tracheostomy just to make sure it didn’t move whilst they were tunnelling for the tubing. (For an explanation about how the shunt works etc please see links on the right.)
We were warned that he would be in a lot of pain after the op and he certainly was, and above all he was hungry as they stopped feeding him this morning at 6 am. Originally Massimo was third on the list, then this morning he was moved to second and in the end he went to theatre third. So just to make sure that he was safe for going in to theatre they stopped feeding him very early. By the time he was fed he had not eaten for a full 12 hours and we know how much he likes his milk!
This evening we gave him half a feed at 6 pm and as he tolerated it very easily he had the second half at 7 pm. We left soon after that as he had been sleeping on and off and it is best if he gets as much rest as possible tonight so that he can sleep off the pain and the pain relief medication. I have just called to be told that he is fine and asleep. He has not developed a temperature and his observations are stable.
Massimo will probably be at GOS for about 5 days and at some point he will be moved out of the ward into a cubicle where I can stay with him. This will possibly be on Friday. We will probably then be transferred back to SGH in preparation for the MLB.
I have realised that I haven’t given you a weight update for ages so thought I would let you know that he currently weighs 5.3 kilos (11 lbs 12 oz).
J and I are exhausted just by the sheer tension of the day, but we have all got through it and Massimo has proved once again that he is a little fighter and nothing is going to stop him. We are very proud of him.