Tomorrow it'll be a week since Sebastian's Orchipexy. That is the medical term for surgery on an undescended testicle. His left was still up in his groin and needed to be pulled down. The whole situation freaked me out since my ex-husband had a testicle removed and was diagnosed with testicle cancer shortly after we started dating. Having to go through numerous surgeries and cancer treatments with someone like that can certainly add to your fears, especially when you remember a specialist at Stanford say an undescended testicle was a cancer culprit. Needless to say I wanted that sucker taken care of pronto.
Luckily, Dr. Morris, Sebastian's urologist agreed to operate on Sebastian at 14 months rather then wait until 18 months like he usually does. So we were scheduled for surgery a couple weeks after returning from California.
We had to wait forever to go into the OR but luckily they had a waiting room for children with tons of toys. Sebastian loved that. He kept playing with the play kitchen and BBQ as well as scooting the trucks around. I think all those toys took his mind off of food and nursing.
He went in around 45 minutes after his scheduled time which sucked considering he hadn't eaten since 3 am and here it was after 10.
I asked to go in when they put him under and they allowed me to, although it was pretty traumatic to watch. I told Alex later (as horrible as this sounds) that it was like putting an animal to sleep. Poor baby was fighting the gas mask and crying his eyes out. Terrible to see but I just knew I wanted to be there for him while they did it. The anesthesiologist was so sweet though, gently stroking his forehead and talking to him as she was holding the mask on. I really appreciated that. I made sure I didn't cry until I left the OR.
They gave Sebastian a caudal block for pain as well as freezing his incision sites. The surgery lasted an hour and went really well. The surgeon said the hernia was small and that his undescended testicle went into its place easily.
When they allowed me to see him in recovery he was crying hysterically. Poor baby. I'm sure he felt like crap and had no idea what was going on. As soon as I held him he passed out snoring. He only slept about an hour and then was up and raring to go. I was told by the anesthesiologist that he might not be able to stand/walk for the rest of the day due to his caudal block, but he was up and walking within an hour and a half, and was busy playing with toys in the hospital crib. That was his first time in a crib so I think he was a little confused about it.
Once we got home we napped and he was completely back to normal. We tried to give him his pain meds but he wanted nothing to do with them and didn't seem to even need them. The next morning he was practically running around (he's learning to run) and super happy. His steri strip and stitches should dissolve in a few days and we go back to the urologist in 5 weeks.
An added plus, this surgery only cost us $5.74, the price of his prescription pain meds. Thank you socialized medicine.
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