Day 1 in the hospital...

What an exhausting day it was yesterday. We arrived at the hospital and Payton immediately started asking questions. We hadn’t said much to Payton about this surgery since we knew that it would scare and worry him. Payton started to ask if they were going to put that thing over his mouth (referring to the gas mask.) He pointed to another part of the hospital and said they only put that thing over your mouth over at that part of the hospital. We checked in and went to the 2nd floor, the surgery floor. Payton started to ask more questions, still not wanting to concern him we told him that he was in for his routine picture scans. We were called back for PRE-OP and they drew Payton’s blood to cross match for any transfusions that he might need. We had requested that Payton get his “giggle juice” (which is what he calls it) so that it would relax him. Chad and I were told that we could walk back to the Surgery room doors while the nurse moved him on a stretcher. I lost it, it was one the hardest things that I have ever had to do next to going in for his nephrectomy surgery. I ached so much for my little guy knowing what he would have to go through over the next few hours. Payton was finally taken into surgery around 12:50 p.m. First Dr. Miller opened Payton and tried to feel around to see if he could feel the spot in his liver; he was unable to feel it. He then placed an Ultra Sound directly on top of Payton’s bare liver to see if he could see the spot with the ultra sound and still nothing. Payton has had 3 previous Ultra Sounds that did not pick it up either so it wasn’t surprising. Dr. Miller then tried the IMRI and the picture came back with nothing on it. Each time they do the IMRI it takes 45 minutes and this was Dr. Miller’s first time of using this machine. Chad and I felt for a bit that Payton was being used as a guinea pig (in pre-op, one of the nurses mentioned that they were excited to see this new device used for the first time on something besides a neurological surgery). By this time Payton had already been in surgery for just over 3 hrs and we hadn’t gotten anywhere. Dr. Miller had the nurse call us and tell us that they were going to try several things to try and get a better view. We were praying that they didn’t just open Payton up and not be able to find this growth. They were finally able to get a good image and Dr. Miller was able to start cutting the liver and removing the growth. Using the IMRI, they marked the spot with a threading needle to show Dr. Miller exactly where to cut. The spot was small enough that Dr. Miller said it was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. It was 5:00 and Payton had already been under for over 4 hrs. The original plan was to remove the growth and then rescan with the IMRI to confirm the spot had been completely removed. Because of the difficulty they had obtaining the first image, Dr. Miller didn’t want to rely on the IMRI to confirm whether they had removed it all. He called and asked one of the pathologists to stay a little longer to confirm whether the growth had been removed with clean margins. Dr. Miller kept Payton open while waiting for word from the pathologist and we were eventually told that the growth had been removed in whole. Thank goodness. After the surgery they put in an epidural to help with pain management. When Dr. Miller finally came out of surgery to talk with us, he looked exhausted. He felt confident that the growth was removed in whole. He said that it was about the size of your small finger nail and was round like the shape of a pea. Dr. Miller said that Payton did a great job and that we would hear some results on the pathology in the next day or two. What was supposed to be a 4 hr. surgery turned into a 7 hr surgery. Payton then had to go in for a chest x-ray to make sure they couldn’t see any internal bleeding. It was 10:00 before I was able to see Payton and I could hardly wait to love on him. When Payton came out of surgery he asked if he was in trouble. He has been asking that lately and I don’t know why. “Of course not”, I told him.

Payton has been sleepy and feeling groggy. He complains of his back hurting and his body being itchy. What a difference this is compared to his last surgery that he is able to communicate and tell us how he feels. He was up most of the night on and off saying that he wants to go home. Asking where Grandma and sissy are and asking if he can go to school tomorrow to see Mrs. Robertson and the kids. Payton melts my heart and is such a trooper. He is being so brave and we can’t wait to get him better soon. I will update as soon as I get the pathology report. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and kind words.