Who was the one that really went under the knife?

June 3, 2010

This precious little being comes into the world so perfect, innocent and untouched by the world’s harsh realities. Then life runs it’s course and your child is traumatized, made to suffer through pain and swallowed up by the ugly world.

Yesterday Drew was gleefully running around outside and I was suffering from inner tumult. I knew that today we would traumatize, cause pain and show Drew how ugly life can be. He gallivanted around not knowing what was ahead of him.

Fortunately for him, he was given a medication that artificially made him happy before he was wheeled off into his surgery. Unfortunately for his parents, there was no medication for us and we were forced to suffer through watching our precious little being that was once perfect, innocent and untouched by the world be sent off to surgery. As my heart was torn out of my chest, I couldn’t help laughing at my baby who giggled, much like yesterday, not knowing what was ahead of him.

Drew had his adenoids removed today, lost a part of untraumatized self. As a result, I also felt swallowed up by this ugly world. As he came out of the surgery, crying and inconsolable, I felt relief that the worst was over. We were passed the surgery and anesthesia but the recovery, the pain of watching your baby in pain, was ahead.

I rocked him, kissed him and did everything I could to console him but the trauma of the day’s events outweighed any soothing techniques I had in my bag of tricks. As we drove off from the place that took Drew’s innocence, I felt like I was leaving a part of my well being there too. He let out small cries all the way home – cries of discomfort, cries of fear and just plain old baby cries that even his Elmo CD couldn’t cure. Finally within the last five minutes of our travels, he nodded out into baby dreamland.

Hopefully a land where surgeries, adenoids and pain don’t exist. As we got home, injured Drew managed to stay in the car and healthy Drew was left at home. Ten minutes after we got home, Drew was running around the house, laughing, playing like nothing had happened to him. The gleeful baby from yesterday who didn’t know what was ahead of him managed to come back almost instantaneously.

What about being deprived of food and drink for all those hours? What about the pain of having his adenoids removed? What about the agony of being separated from mom and dad and sent off with these strangers? All of that was left at the surgical center. After putting our precious little being to bed tonight we realized that he was no longer struggling to breathe, he fell asleep right away from exhaustion of the day and really was quite content. Fortunately for him, he won’t remember this trauma, his pain was extremely minimal in the scheme of things, and he wasn’t swallowed up by the ugly world. Too bad I can’t say that for his mom and dad.

2 thoughts on “Who was the one that really went under the knife?

  1. I'm so glad the surgery went so well. Drew is a trooper – he is so resilient!! Can't wait to see him sans adenoids!

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