Ryan had his eye surgery this past week and Ryan is back on his feet like nothing ever happened. As far as Ryan is concerned, he took a long nap on Tuesday and is back to watching Barney and learning new words. Kari and I can not say the same....
The morning started with my parents meeting us at our house and we would all travel over to the hospital together. My parents showed up at exactly 8:15am, but the day had already had a rocky start. My father's truck had been broken into the night before and all his possessions were removed from the car. This included his wallet, tools and student tests. Since my father was focused on Ryan, he did not have an opportunity to digest the entire situation and was decided to handle the situation once we were home with Ryan later in the afternoon. We'll come back to that car robbery later.
Back to Ryan...As with any hospital experience, waiting is a big part and this was no different. We were scheduled for a 10am surgery and waited a good hour past that before we got things started. That said, Ryan was a champ and was busy playing with his crayons and smiling for us all. He really was a trooper, keep in mind that he had not have anything to eat or drink since 7:00pm the night before. He was even patient enough to keep on the temperature strip they put on his head. I think he just thought that this was a more civil way to take his temperature....the rectal method is so primitive.
Right when Ryan was starting to lose his patience, the anesthesiologist came in to administer some drugs, aka Magic Juice, to calm him done and start to knock him out. They don't start any IV or mask until they give the magic juice. Ryan put up a little bit of a fight when taking the magic juice, but he was done with it before he could really get upset. I don't know what was in that magic juice, but it was good stuff!! For those that know Ryan, you know that he probably makes one of the best angry faces I have ever seen a baby make (see below).
As the magic juice started to kick in, Ryan's angry face slowly went away and a big shit eating grin appeared. Ryan started laughing like I have never seen him laugh before. The entire staff (nurses, doctors, etc) were getting such a kick out of him. They brought him over a balloon and he was swatting for it with a reckless swing of the arm follow by a hearty laugh. Ryan was feeling good. The nurse then took him from me and brought him into the operating room. While Ryan was feeling good, he did manage to give the nurse a look.
While Ryan was in surgery, we grabbed something to eat and my father started to call and cancel his credit cards. After having a quick sandwich, we all returned to the waiting room. Before we could even start to complain about waiting, the doctor came out and explained that everything went well and Ryan was recovering. Kari and I were then able to go into the recovery room. Ryan had a litte IV in his left hand and a few monitors on his chest and arms. I don't think any of those things bothered Ryan, he was out cold and was enjoying his sleep. We waited for about 20 minutes before we started to wake him up. Ryan wanted nothing to do with being awake, he was content with sleeping there all day and let us know it. He tried to open his eyes a little bit, but just wanted to go back to sleep. I picked him up and sat in a wheel chair and was wheeled up to another room where we could dress him and start the discharge process.
After getting him into his clothes and getting some eye drops from the doctor, Ryan was ready to go home. We were escorted down to the car and we were off to take Ryan home. Once home, we put Ryan to bed and set our focus on my father's car.
Apparently while we were at the hospital someone had contacted my father's office claiming to have found his "stuff". My father was given a number to call and that is when we were introduced to Miss Johnson. Miss Johnson had apparently found my father's stuff on some street in all places, Newark, NJ!! We made arrangements to meet Miss Johnson in the parking lot of a McDonalds and got in the car to get his stuff. Long story short, Miss Johnson was a self proclaimed garbage picker that found my fathers ID's, paperwork and a few misc items like CD's, sneaker, etc. Despite the sketchy situation, we were able to retrieve my father's stuff and return safely to find Ryan finally waking up.
Ryan ate all of his dinner and then some extra to make up for the lack of food over the past 18 hours. He then went to sleep with no issues and woke up his normal self. His eyes look great, but will be red for about a month. To reward Ryan for being such a good boy during the surgery, we decided to take him to the Easter Bunny at the mall. He loved it!!!
