Gabriel's Surgery

When Gabriel does things, he chooses to do them big.  This includes surgery.  Rather than tubes in his ears or adenoids removed, he has major brain surgery. 

The morning of July 15, Andrew carried Gabriel to the car at 5:15 am.  We have taken him to things in during the early morning hours and he simply slept in the car.  Instead, Gabriel told us that he was angry about being in the car at night time.  It was time to quit going so "forward-er" and go home.  It didn't take long before he told us that he didn't want to go the doctor's office. 

Given the situation, it took all my strength not to turn the car around and cancel his surgery time.  The few days before his surgery date, I stared at his beautiful head that didn't have a single mark on it. He would soon have a large incision in the middle of the back of his head.  

We continued to the hospital and upon arrival, I dropped Andrew and Gabriel off at the front doors while I parked the car.  Gabriel threw himself on the ground and yelled at us for bringing him to the hospital at night.  We managed to get to the second floor.  While I registered him, Andrew continued to de-escalate Gabriel.  Gabriel pulled hair, scratched Andrews face, and yelled.  I'm glad there was only one other family in the surgical area with us. 

The nurse called Gabriel to the pre-op room.  He was still angry that it was night time. The sweet staff attempted to calm him down and talked to us about everything.  When it came time to go back to surgery, the staff attempted every trick they knew to get him there 

They decided to skip protocol, dressed both of us for surgery, and Andrew and I escorted him down the hall.  When the operating room doors home, reality smacked me hard.  There were twelve nurses and doctors waiting to perform brain surgery on my baby.  

I held the tears in, somehow, as Gabriel jumped into the wagon. The anesthesiologist grabbed the mask as the three of us rubbed his arms and he calmly went to sleep.  The nurses move him to the bed and we kissed him good bye.  My lovely son awaited his surgery. 

The nurses escorted us out to te waiting room and told us that we did an excellent job with Gabriel.  The also said that most kids that anxious don't calm down like he did.  In a way that made me feel better