Tyler's Surgery (not for the faint of heart)

It was an early morning since we had to be at the hospital at 5:30 am. Yuck! I got him there and we got him settled in the Day Surgery Unit. Then they transported him back to surgery at little bit before 7 am. Tyler's parents were there in the waiting room. The staff was supposed to call when the surgery started around 7:30 am. By 8 o'clock we had not heard anything. The little old lady volunteers wouldn't call to check on him until 8:30. Russ and Mary had to leave a little after 8. At 8:15 the nurse called and said they had started and it was going well. I figured that I had time, so I went out to the car and took at nap! Pat, one of Tyler's friends, and I went back in a little after 9 and they told us that we had missed the doctor and Tyler was in recovery. The doctor was supposed to stop by after his next case. Shortly thereafter, I got another call at 10:20 saying that Tyler was in recovery and he had about 20 more minutes left. At 10:45 Tyler was ready to go back to Day Surgery and from there be discharged. They asked me to go with them, but I made them aware that I was supposed to be waiting on Dr. Yi. As soon as we got Tyler settled in Day Surgery, they wanted me to go back to the surgery waiting room for the doctor (I got my exercise today). Finally I got to talk with Dr. Yi. He said the surgery went very well. It was a necessity that they do it, because his knee cap was severely off of alignment with the rest of his knee. They did not have to do any resection of the meniscus or go into the soft tissue (Praise God!). He was worried about his bleeding during the surgery, so he told me to keep an eye on it. From there I went back to be with Tyler. He looked good, but very tired and really thirsty (a side effect mainly from the general anesthesia). He has on a type of immobilizer around his leg and a drain in for the bleeding. He also has a cold pack around the dressing (that is the blue tube in the pictures). It keeps cold ice water circulating around his knee. Tyler says it feels great! In recovery, we got him drinking and eating a cracker or two pretty quickly. But we had to wait for him to use the facilities before we could leave. I thought we were going to leave so I left and ran the prescriptions to the pharmacy. When I got back Mary, Polly, and the girls had come to visit (thanks for coming!). Then Tyler took a nap. Finally around 2:30 we were cleared to leave! We ran by and picked up the prescriptions and I made him take some pain medicine and an antibiotic. We stopped off to get chicken noodle soup, per request, and then we were home! Things have been good since we got home. Tyler is able to walk with the assistance of crutches (or pogo sticks, as Benjamin calls them). Benjamin is "hurt" too. He needs an band aid on his knee too, because it hurts so much! Tyler got the pleasure of being spoon fed by Benjamin, then he needed some soup too! I don't think he has let Tyler out of his sight for more than a minute! Our appointment is in the morning to see the doctor again. Then I think we will go to physical therapy from there. I got presents for taking care of Tyler- see pictures (he is really not that bad!). Will keep you updated as something happens!