Surgery Success!!

Tuesday, March 24th Jackson had part of his spleen and gallbladder removed and all in all it has been a success. He was so strong and brave, I think it was harder on Zach and I to watch him get wheeled off into the operating room. Of course it helped that they had Jackson pretty doped up on drugs! I have to say, he was pretty funny and cute to watch! :-)

So at 9:00 a.m. they made their 1st incision, and the spleen was removed by 10:00 when they called down to us in the waiting room. At 10:00 they started on the gallbladder and that is a little tricker to remove, since there are so many valves that attach to other organs. By 11:00 they had called and said he was still doing great, but that it would be a little while longer....errrrr!! By 11:30, the surgeon called down to us and said everything was done and that Jackson was being moved to recovery!! I think those 2 1/2 hours were the longest 2 1/2 hours of Zach and my life!!!

Once we got to recovery, Jackson was already coming too and in allot of pain, it was hard to hold back the tears. We were in recovery for about an hour before they moved us to his room, where they continued him on heavy drugs and he slept on and off the rest of the day. We had a private room so that night both Zach and I were able to stay the night with him. On Wednesday, Zach stayed the day with him as I drove home to shower and spend some time with Max at Grandma's. Zach said Jackson was pretty sore and spent most of the day in bed. That night I headed back to UVA and Zach came home to get some sleep. I was able to get him to stand up and go to the bathroom on his own most of the night!! On Thursday, Jackson seemed to be doing so much better. He started to act silly and smile alot more and even walked down to the play area where he made some new friends. This was such a wonderful sight for both Zach and I to see and even cousin Kelly came for a visit and got to witness Jack at his silliest!! :-) That night the doctors said Jackson was doing great and we could go home in the morning, yippee!!!! Zach and I decided this was a good night for me to head home and get some much needed sleep in my own bed, Halejuhah !!! So Friday we headed home and I have to say Jackson is just doing fantastic! Kids certainly do bounce back pretty quick! He barely takes any pain medication and each day I see more and more energy coming back, it's so nice to see. We head back next week for a post surgery follow-up and hopefully from here on out, a once a year visit to UVA!!!

I want to thank everyone for all their support and prayers during this difficult time in our lives. You have no idea how much it meant to us, thank you, thank you!!!! I need to also send a big special Thank you to Mom O, for taking such good care of Max while all this was going on. It made life so much easier for me, to know that I didn't need to worry about Max because he was in good hands with someone who loves him very much, thanks Mom! :-)

So I thought I would share a few pictures of before surgery and after. :-)