The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

I read that book on my flight to Calgary and today Matthew was the one in striped pajamas. There were not very many other similarities than that.

We took off from the house early enough this morning to get to the childrens hospital for our 2 hour pre-op wait. After a short while they called Mattys name and they got him changed into a pair of striped pjs. He almost had pink but then they saw it would be too small. Yellow was much nicer for a little boy.

I shouldnt have worried about having all the activities I had because the waiting room had toys and crafts, movies and friends... We even met Papa Rick, a man who does activities with Matthew every Wednesday. He was a welcome familiar face.

Matthew was incredibly brave until he was wearing the mask to put him to sleep. He started panicking and it was so hard not to cry. In the middle of his panic he passed out. Seeing his body go limp and his eyes roll back was so hard. The moment I stepped out of the room I let the tears fall.

It wasnt long until they were back telling me he was in recovery, everything went well and I could see him once he woke up. I kept praying everything would be the best case scenario. The procedure included removing his thumb nail, taking a swab of the wound underneath and removing the ingrown nail that was stuck. They told me if there was no nail there, he might never have a thumb nail again- this would be the worse case. Thankfully he already had one growing. It was just to frail to help the rest of the nail grow out. My prayer was answered-we have the best case scenario.

So, recovery begins. I must admit I was thankful we were scheduled to go in November first since Halloween was the night before. All three boys got into their costumes and went to a few doors to collect some candy. Since Matthew was so excited for trick or treating he never even thought about the surgery until we were already there getting into our new clothes.

So tomorrow may be back to a new normal- its been an incredibly busy first week home. I guess that is the kind of life we lead right now though.