Ezekiel's new smile

On Monday Jeremiah Isaac and Malachi went off to Simon's Mum and Dad's house.  At the ridiculous hour of 5:30am on Tuesday me, Simon and Ezekiel set off for Bristol.  After some waiting around we were shown up to the ward and before I had time to get nervous Ezekiel was weighed, name tagged and gowned up.  The anaesthetist came round to see us and so did the surgeon.  Simon signed the consent form and the phone call came to say that they were ready for him in theatre.  The nurses pushed Ezekiel the short distance to theatre in his cot with Simon and I trailing behind.  Simon held him while he was put to sleep and then we both kissed him goodbye. 

We then had 3 hours before he would be finished so for the first time since Ezekiel was in special care we were on our own.  I wanted to get out of the hospital so after giving the nurses our mobile numbers we went off.  We had a mcdonalds breakfast and then went to asda.  We went back to the hospital and got the suitcase out of the car.  We still had a while to go so we went off to the restaurant which was bigger than I remembered and had a drink.  We went back to the ward and waited.  A magician came round to entertain the children so we watched that and waited some more.  Finally a nurse came and said that he was out and in recovery but they were struggling to wake him up so he would be moving to HDU.  So we moved the buggy and suitcase to HDU and went off to recovery.

When we walked into recovery I was listening out for the sound of Ezekiel screaming but there was silence.  When we got to him he was being cuddled by a nurse and was still fast asleep.  The porter decided the best way of taking him back to the ward was for me to sit in a wheelchair and hold Ezekiel while the porter pushed.  So off we went and the nurse from recovery disconnected Ezekiel from the portable sats monitor and attached him to the big monitor in HDU.  I sat in the chair and cuddled Ezekiel thinking that 6 months previously I was also cuddling Ezekiel in HDU.

Simon went home at about 4pm and about an hour after that the dr came round and said Ezekiel was doing so well we could move out of HDU.  So off we went to Otter bay where we were sharing a room with 2 little girls.  At 8pm we were on the move again and this time we were in Starfish bay which was a bay with about 12 beds in and seemed to be where all the children who were in short term for operations were.  So most of them had been in theatre that day and Ezekiel was the only one who slept though the night.  Thankfully when the cleft nurse came round later that morning she said we could go home as soon as the medicines were sorted so at 2pm we were on our way home.  Big sighs of relief all round.

Next week Isaac is having his squint repaired.