13) Prepping for surgery. . .

The family photo above was taken about a month before Wil's surgery. Little did I know but in that picture I was pregnant with our third son Asher.
The photo above was the first photo we ever had taken without Wil's NG tube in. I remember being in the parking lot and while I held Wil, Bryan pulled his tube out. This of course is uncomfortable and Wil began crying, we were hoping that he would calm down and not look as though he were crying for the pictures. As you can see, he didn't cry for long, the pictures turned out great!



Prepping Wil's next surgery was difficult for me. Wil was a year and a half old and I felt for the first time that our lives were somewhat normal. I so badly did not want to go back to Indy and have another extended stay and separation from Saige and Bryan. I also did not want to see Wil in the hospital again! I realize it was and is inevitable for Wil to be hospitalized but regardless it is something that I don't particularly like. They told us to plan on staying for 6-8 weeks, I planned for 8-12 weeks and tried not to hold my breath! I knew that this surgery would be one of the most grueling surgeries as of yet and several of his surgeons would need to be involved, general surgery, orthopedics, urology, and plastic surgery. I knew that they were going to put his bladder together, try and fix his urethra, cut through his upper leg and rotate his hips in (to minimize the hip displasia that he has), and to see if they could get any more of his stomach in. I also knew that they wanted Wil to be immobile for 3-4 weeks while they had him traction. I didn't really know what to expect, the story of our lives! I did, though, feel like I was walking into this surgery with a little more understanding and confidence. Confidence with myself, confidence that I did know what Wil needed, and I was confident to be his voice. I also had a lot more understanding of what the surgeons were talking about(medically speaking), more understanding of what the hospital staff goes through, and definitely how recovery may go. (day by day)