the essence

Clay's surgery was a success and he's doing swell! (Aside from the fact that after four years of keeping the phone number for poison control on the fridge I had to call it for the first time tonight when Clay munched on a camphor berry one of the girls brought inside - he's completely fine, barely swallowed any & had no reactions.)


We made it to the hospital shortly before 6am & waited.... I was worried that Clay would really be hungry but he did fine until around 7 when he started getting cranky.




Yes, we were all tired!

Clay was happy most of the morning & right after he started getting cranky it was time for his first dose of medicine, the one to help him relax. He enjoyed playing with the syringe dropper & the meds did their job well, he was a relaxed boy after that!

Thanks to the meds Clay made no fuss when they took him back for the surgery. While waiting Ray & I went to the cafeteria for breakfast - less than $3 for both of us! We walked back to the waiting room & the surgeon walked in right behind us to let us know the surgery was already complete! (it only took 30 minutes!)

The issue was this teeny tiny hole Clay had up in the cartilage of his ear. The hole was there because when he was developing the skin that was supposed to develop where the hole was located developed under his skin instead. Because skin keeps growing it developed into a cyst - about the size of a jelly bean! I had no idea it was so large! When I was changing the dressing tonight I couldn't believe how much bigger the hole is there now! (Skin doesn't stretch in that area of your ear so there wasn't a way to close the hole.)

Once Clay started coming around we were able to go back to see him. He was hungry & really didn't like all of the tubes to which he was hooked up.

We were at the hospital for less than 4 hours & Clay went to sleep when we got home. By this evening he was pretty much his normal self, eating a lot & crawling around playing & laughing. Thank you for your prayers!