Monday, September 23, 2013

Connor's surgery

Whenever people would ask how to tell Connor and Tanner apart we would say 2 things:  his off-centered dimple (due to a soft tissue mass on one side of his chin) and a little scar to the side of his eyebrow (he got this when he was just a toddler and fell and hit a window sill at the gym).  As he grew older the soft tissue mass seemed to look more obvious, which gave him a crooked pointy chin look.  When he was in kindergarden we decided to have the soft tissue removed.  His surgeon made the incision under the chin so as to not have a noticeable scar.  When the swelling went down after surgery we were disappointed to see NO difference.  A few years later we sought out a different surgeon who took pictures and watched it for a a couple of years until we decided to try one more time.  The only thing he remembered about his first surgery was that he got to have a Sprite afterwards.  Being older and wiser this time around he asked many questions, repeatedly, obviously nervous about what exactly things were going to feel like, how much pain was involved, etc.  It was just he and I the day of surgery.  He was quiet on the ride to the hospital, which is normal, asking just a few questions.  He was very brave getting his IV in and asked me to take a picture of it to show Tanner and Sydney.  When he came out of the anesthesia he was groggily excited.  "Wow, surgery is awesome!  That didn't hurt one bit!" He was more chatty than I've ever seen him as he came fully out of his anesthesia.  He loved getting his jello and sprite and didn't have any trouble pain tolerance.  In the next few days I kept asking him if he needed his medicine for the pain and he would reply "no, if just feels like "ow" but not bad".  He loved the attention he got from his family and grandparents.  I think he would do it again if it was required :)  We are hoping this does it for his chin repair.  Other than a tough looking scar things look great.






3 comments:

Sharlene, Mom, Grammy said...

I love these pictures of Connor. He's such a handsome young man and a brave one, too. Getting an IV for a child is scary, but it looks like Connor handled it like a man--very brave.

LOVE that boy!! Hope the chin turns out to be so "even" that it's difficult for people to tell him apart from Tanner. :)

joelb said...

Sprite!

and now you get to invent stories about how you got the chin scar -- go-kart accident? knife fight? window sill?

Troy said...

Great IV pic!

Glad to hear Connor is doing well and wishing him a great recovery!