In Stitches

Gracie went to Umass Medical Center for her first surgery this past Thursday. What the doctors thought was a simple epigastric hernia turned out to be a lot more complicated. Once they started the surgery, they found that she actually had two separate hernias - one very large epigastric hernia, and a smaller umbilical hernia. The surgery took just over two hours, and of course, I was a nervous wreck the entire time.

We arrived at 8am and we were promptly checked in and sent back to a pre-op room. We met with the surgeon and the anesthesia team. Gracie was given some medicine to make her relax and help her to not remember what happened before the surgery so that she wouldn't be scared when she woke up.

Here she is before taking off to the OR - she was so excited that Fancy Nancy was allowed to come into the operating room to get her belly fixed too (and she even got her very own hospital bracelet, just like Gracie.

I was able to go in and see her about 20 minutes after the anesthesia wore off. She was very groggy, and she kept crying and saying "I'm all done", "I'm all done mommy". Finally, the nurse gave her a dose of morphine and she went back to sleep for a while in my arms, and when she woke up she didn't cry any more.

We were able to go home about an hour later, and she spent the next two days in bed or on the couch just watching tv and chilling out. The third day, she started sitting up a little bit and by Sunday, she was walking around. Today she is doing really well, she is still having pain when sitting and she is unable to bend down at all but she is hanging in. She's a fighter this one... she has been from the start. Her bandage came off on Sunday, and the stitches should be healed by the end of next week. We'll go for a followup in two weeks and then we should be all set. No more hernias (unless we're in the 5% that spontaneously return).