Earlier this week, Tony went to the Summit Surgery Center at Virtua Voorhees to have the blocked tear duct in his right eye opened. It has caused him to have pink eye quite a few times since birth, so it was time to get it taken care of before he got any older.
Leading up to the day of surgery, which was Tuesday, all Tony knew was that he was going on an ‘adventure’ that morning.
We made sure Tony went to bed at a decent time the night before and that he did not eat or drink anything that morning. That was very difficult because Tony always asks for something to drink the minute he wakes up in the morning.
We kept telling Tony that he would be able to have juice right before his ‘adventure’ and then as soon as it is complete.
We all got into the car at our house; Mommy, Daddy, Tony, Enzo and Nonna so we could be at Summit by 6am. Upon arrival, Grandmom got out of her car and came over to help take Tony out of his seat.
We walked into the building to check-in and Tony immediately began putting on a show for the other three people in the waiting room.
We played in the children’s section of the waiting room for a little bit until Tony was called back to the pre-op room. Mommy and Daddy went with him while he was weighed, had his blood pressure checked and changed into a Looney Tunes hospital gown and no-slip socks.
Tony wandered around the hall for a little bit until he found some legos to play with, which he brought back into his room. He played on the bed for a while, building towers with the legos until they would collapse.
At this point, it was time for Tony to drink the laughing juice, which would help to subdue him and put him into a zone.
It took a good 15 minutes for it to kick-in, but when it did, boy did it work well! His head began to bob and he became dead weight in Mommy’s arms. The nurse came in and asked if we thought he was ready to go back for the surgery.
In order to make sure he was, I asked Tony to turn the TV in the room off since he had turned it on himself and knew where the button was located. He searched and searched for a couple of minutes and that is when we knew it was time. Tony was really struggling to stay awake.
Mommy asked, “Do you want to go on an ‘adventure’ with the nice nurse?”
“Sure,.” was Tony’s response.
The nurse took Tony and they walked through a set of double doors towards the operating room.
We cleaned up his toys, grabbed his clothes and walked back out to the waiting room to sit with Grandmom, Nonna and Enzo.
By the time we got situated in the waiting room and watched a couple minutes of the morning news, one of the nurses at the front desk called our names.
Tony was out of surgery and in recovery already and the doctor wanted to speak with us about the procedure and what we had to do for Tony upon returning home.
The surgery went well and Tony did great. We went back to recovery to be at his side as the nurses let him sleep for about another 30 minutes or so.
My cousin Karen was working in recovery that day and she came to check on Tony even though he wasn’t her patient.
We began to wake Tony, which is when things really got interesting. We were warned that children between the ages of 2-6 could react to the anesthesia. Tony definitely reacted to it. He had the strength of 10 men, was nasty, was screaming and flailed incredibly upon waking.
The ride home was tough because one minute Tony was nasty and miserable and the next he was back to his old self. It was like we had Sybil in the car with us.
Upon returning home, we set the couch up like a bed for Tony so he could rest all afternoon. He was finally starting to return to normal as he began to run around the house, sing and build with his train set.
Tony took a nice four-hour nap that day and still does not know what he went through that morning. He keeps telling everyone who comes to visit him that he went on an ‘adventure.’
