Tubies out!

Carter anticipating his surgery

Carter's post-op popsicle

We headed to CHOC early this morning for Carter’s Broviac removal surgery. I woke up in a panic because the surgeon’s office never told us to hold off on Carter’s aspirin (a blood thinner) before surgery. I had completely forgotten to inquire about it. We were crossing our fingers that we’d still be able to have surgery today. Luckily, the surgeon felt totally confident still doing surgery and said Carter is on such a small dosage of baby aspirin it wouldn’t matter.

When the surgeon came in to talk to us, Carter said, “Dr. Kabeer, you gonna take my tubies out?” And the doctor said, “Yes Carter, and congratulations!” And it is a huge victory! There was another girl in there getting her central line out this morning too and it just made my eyes tear-up. These kids BEAT cancer and this is their first step in feeling like normal kids again.

They gave Carter this anti-anxiety (amnesia) med they always give him before surgery. It makes the separation from Matt and me a lot less dramatic. He just begins to get goofy and sleepy, and is almost dead-weight. At that point, we passed him off to the nurses to take him to get prepped for surgery.

The surgeon came out and said everything went great and there was very little bleeding. When we went into the recovery room to see Carter, he was just waking up (and doing his usual screaming as he comes to). He was crying that he wanted his tubies back in. Matt and I couldn’t help but laugh and told him he definitely didn’t want that. After holding him a while with warm blankets, he began to settle down.

Since we’ve been home, he just keeps looking down his shirt and can’t believe the tubes are gone. Imagine if you had an apparatus attached to your body for as long as you can remember, and suddenly it is gone. I’m sure it’s a strange sensation for him. He’ll have sponge baths for another five days and then, Carter gets to take a REAL bath and can get completely wet!!! He can go swimming! No more dressing changes or tubes to flush every day! Carter is free!!!