Nolan's Surgery--Stage 1

So, Nolan had a surgery yesterday. He was born with a condition called hypospadius, where basically the opening of the urethra is on the underside of the penis. The urethra is the tube that drains urine from the bladder. In males, the opening of the urethra is normally at the end of the penis. His scrotum was also not formed correctly. In the surgery yesterday, the surgeon fixed his scrotum and pulled his penis further out of his body and made it straight. He will have maybe 1-2 more surgeries in the future. I know he will be embarrassed that people knew about this, but I am just so impressed with how brave he is! And, it doesn't make him any less than a man. Especially because the doctor said when he pulled Nolan's penis out from inside his body he was surprised how big it was. Haha, see Nolan? I know you're a real man.

He did great! Before the surgery, he wasn't allowed to eat for 12 hours. I was worried but he didn't even seem to care. Just played and smiled and giggled like normal. We got to the waiting room and he just played with their toys, super oblivious. Then, we got him dressed into his cute hospital gown  and I had to hand him off to the anesthesiologist and go to the waiting room. I teared up when they took him into the operating room but he was so brave, didn't cry just waved bye to us.

We waited in the waiting room for probably about 6 hours. We saw many other families come and go. I mostly watched Netflix, Josh read. Nathan came up and spent some time with us in the waiting room too.  That part was fun. We got updates every few hours but there wasn't much to tell, everything was great.

Then, around 5:30 pm, they wheeled him up into the post-operating wing. When I saw him, he looked kind of terrible. His face was swollen, and he was crying but his voice sounded hoarse. It was so sad. I tried calming him down but it didn't work. Finally, we gave him apple juice, and he was fine. Right before we were about to leave, he was having trouble holding his head up and he was very fussy. They determined it was just gas as well as the anesthesia wearing off. So they made us wait about 30 minutes more and then he was fine. He ate crackers and didn't throw up.

He's doing pretty well! His spirit is willing but his body is weak. He wants to run and jump and play but when he falls, he cries because he realizes his body is healing. He's on a few meds right now but he is almost back to his happy, funny self.

We feel like the Lord blessed us, and we are humbled.