Making a grown man cry

This morning Luke had his operation and thank God, all went well. I was dead scared about this operation but thanks to some great comments in my earlier post I lost a lot of the pre-op concerns and in truth I was completely fine up until Luke got his anesthetic.

His courage right throughout amazed me and he took to the dreaded mask without a fight or a complaint and I was seriously expecting worse. At the point of losing consciousness Luke started to freak out a little and I was forced to pin him down until he was out and that was my turning point in the whole experience.

Guilt, helplessness and fear all overcame me and I just wanted to get him out of there – I cried instead.

What I’ve learned through this experience:

1. Kids are tougher than we give them credit for.
2. Trust the experts, they know how.
3. Emotionally I was ready – practically I simply wasn’t.
4. Time in the recovery room is longer than the operation itself.
5. Don’t plan to be at a 9:30am meeting when the op is scheduled for 8:00am.
6. Take the day off work. I didn’t.
7. Make sure there’s lots of yogurt, custard and juice – with straws.
8. Always have a comfort present for afterwards. We had to get one.
9. This is certainly not something I’m going to do again in a hurry.
10. It doesn’t take much to make me cry…

Luke and Mom are at home recovering and when I left for work he seemed almost back to his normal self.