Surgery #3 - Check

Yesterday Eli had his cosmetic surgery to correct his bifid scrotum and his penile torsion. Our day started at 3:30 AM because despite waking Eli up at 11:30 PM to give him a little snack (in the hopes of tiding him over until game-time), he still woke up at his usual time to nurse. We were at least able to calm him so he didn't wake up the whole neighborhood, but at that point he had no interest in going back to sleep. On the plus side, he stayed in a great mood until they took him away to anesthesia. He was even flirting with the nurses in between rubbing his eyes and yawning. The surgery took a little over two hours and then we stayed in recovery for about another two hours. It was nice to be able to come home so quickly because I think all of us are more comfortable here despite having to deal with Eli's catheter. They sent us home with some Tylenol with codeine so Eli stayed pretty comfortable and slept a ton yesterday. By yesterday evening Colin was getting him to laugh. Today he's already acting like his usual self. His face is still a little puffy but he's chatting, smiling, laughing, kicking, and doesn't seem to be in much pain. The worst part right now are the diaper changes. His genital area looks like Frankenstein's monster to me, but his surgeon seemed pretty proud of the work he did and reassured us that once it's healed, everything should look fairly normal. He's very sensitive to the catheter so he cries when we have to fuss with that. We currently are using 3 1/2 diapers on him with the intention of keeping the surgery area as clean and dry as possible. One diaper is folded up to provide pressure to prevent any bleeding, one has a hole cut in it for the catheter to poke through, 1/2 is used to go over the stomas, and the last one is pulled up over everything. We will be able to stop using the folded diaper this weekend and we can stop using the diaper with the hole once the catheter comes out. His surgeon said that it could fall out on its own, but it's stitched on, so we have a follow-up appointment with him next Wednesday to get it removed. Eli continues to amaze us by being such a little trooper. Here's a picture of him taken yesterday afternoon after his marathon nap. He's trying to smile, but his face is still a little too puffy to see the full grin. Just one more surgery to go, little man!