Well, we're home now, and we just put Chris down to bed. Initially, things went swimmingly. Chris didn't have anything to eat/drink since 8:45 PM last night, and he was content to just get in the car and go this morning. He just had a bit of a cough this morning, but so does every member of this household. There was some initial trouble at the hospital as the surgery scheduled before us ran 3 hours over. Don't want to rush these things, but Chris was a champ. He only bugged us about half a dozen times about wanting something to eat, there about eleven, he started trying to root around in the diaper bag. It made him quite upset when I had to eat something and I made the mistake of eating in front of him, I've been eating every 2 hours lately, and that was hard today.

We arrived at 8:30 a.m. for our theoretical 10 a.m. surgery, but they take him until 1:45. They gave him some good relaxing drug about 15 minutes prior that made him very "relaxi-taxi" and that made our parting much easier. He rolled away content for his car ride saying "I go see Dr. West." We asked him later if he saw her and he said he did. We saw her only 1/2 hour later and she reported that things went well. His rectum was about pinky size, and she stretched him up to 18 gauge rod, about thumb size. Pretty significant. She said to expect a little bleeding, not much, and we have had exactly that, a little bleeding with stool. We'll have to meet with her in a couple weeks for more detailed follow up.

Chris was very content only because that the surgery prep waiting area (Day Surgery) had TVs in every room, so not only did he catch the PBS morning lineup, we moved to the Nickelodeon Lunchtime Lineup, which brought him great joy. His first Big Cry was when we turned off the TV. The nurses were so impressed with how well he did for so long, they gave him a toy, a Little People Policecar, before he'd even had the surgery. Daddy only had to walk the halls with him once. Then he got another of those great puppy pillows in the recovery room, which he cuddled all the way home. Oh, and this was his easiest recovery we've had yet! (Eric and I calculated this was his 7th, 5th surgery and the 2 MRIs) We were called in and he was awake and fussing and the nurse was having him choose stickers. Apparently, they'd woke him up for a breathing treatment, his chunky cough this morning, brought his O2 Sats down to levels they didn't like, around 90, so they woke him for a breathing treatment, which he liked even less. But he was awake. He'd never been this awake before, he wanted juice, and he got some, downed 4 ounces in 10 minutes. Then demanded more, and downed all but 1 oz of that, which he finished on the way to the car. We hung out for an hour in post-recovery, just to make sure that he didn't puke and was doing ok, which he was...as long as the TV was on. When it came time to turning off the tv and getting dressed, he was less than interested. He wanted to Stay Jammies. The nice nurse said we could go home in our fashionable peach hospital PJs, so we did.

It took us a while to get home, we stopped at Fort Ben for Daddy to pick up a packet for his Mini-marathon tomorrow, and as Chris and I waited in the parking lot, Chris told me he wanted to get out, he wanted to go in, he wanted to play, he wanted to see Bryn. This was a boy who felt just fine. So fine that when his Grandma Willman called with some bad news about his Great Grandma Willman, we agreed to meet for supper to talk. We asked Chris if he wanted to see Grandma, he cheerfully replied, See Ama! We ate at Max and Erma's and somewhere between the soup and salad, Chris's happy drugs wore off, and he became a miserable fuss. He started experiencing some gas, and putting out some poo, which had to be really painful, I think he was holding it. In the car on the way home he was ok.

But when we got home, and we put him in the bath, he started screaming and did not stop until he fell asleep on my shoulder afterwards. We'd ask him if he wanted out, he said Stay Tub. He said More Toys, but he didn't stop whining or crying to play with the toys. He only poo-ed a small bit in the tub, but he was shaking so fierce, I think he was clenching to avoid the pain of passing the poo. Poor angel baby. He never cries in the tub, unless he's really miserable, he loves bathtime, it's like his favorite time of day. Normally the sound of laughter shakes the house during bathtime...not tonight. Chris cried the whole time, coughing, and he was miserable and shaking and crying when we put him in his jammies. As he sat cuddled in my lap, as we read Pajama Time, his favorite story. He did not read along. At his normally favorite parts, his eyelids fluttered closed. By the time the story was done, so was he. He was a SuperChamp.