Stoma Surgery

On July 29th Carter had surgery to close up his Stoma (hole in his neck).  We have been waiting and so excited for this surgery. It hasn't been very fun to bath this kid for the last two years. Trying to keep water out of that is darn near impossible especially the older he is getting. I always felt so bad every time water got in there. He would cough so hard and he hated it. 

 One last look at the hole the night before surgery. He has refused to keep a band aid on it the last two months which has definitely brought on a lot of weird looks when we are out in public. It is so normal to us that I almost wonder why people are staring then we just think its funny because that would be a little odd to see. 

 We had to be to the surgery center at 6:00 am. Little man is not of fan of early rising, but he sure was a trooper. Trav and I were a tad bit nervous getting back into this whole surgery thing. For a while there it felt so normal. Thankfully we have and incredible Doctor who actually knows Dr. McClay from Dallas. They are on the pediatric ENT board together. It was very comforting when he layed out the same plan as McClay. One thing this doc has that most pediatric surgeons don't is bedside manners. He is actually very personal which is nice for a change. Needless to say we are big fans of Dr. Camilon. 

 The surgery lasted about an hour. They did a bronchoscopy and a laranoscopy and closed up the hole. He made and arch incision on top and bottom of the stoma and closed it up from the inside out re-attacthing all the muscles and making it so that when it is all healed it will be pretty much unnoticeable. We were home by 10:30 which was crazy for us. They kick you out of here pretty quick in CA which is more than fine with us. He pretty much slept a majority of the day.

 After. It looks pretty intense here, but that is mostly due to the purple surgical marker where he outlined the incision lines. 

 Come 6:00 that night you would never know he had anything done. Besides being pretty hoarse from the bronch he was back to normal. I am sure his climbing all over the place didn't fall into their "low activity" category. 

The next morning Boston went over to Diego's house. I think this is the first time Carter has ever parked himself on the couch and sat still. It lasted 20 minutes! He has enjoyed his cold smooth diet which has consisted of mostly green smoothies and ice cream. He of course wont ever let his trusty banana chips from Trader Joes go. He sure is one tough cookie!