I Love Your Top Side...and Bottom Side...

Will's "first" favorite book was I Love You Through and Through by Bernadette Rossetti Shustak, and the lines "I love your top side...and bottom side" took on new meaning in our family during the past few weeks. The last weekend in September, Will developed what we later found out was a condition called rectal prolapse. Warning: Don't google this; it's not for the faint of heart.

The condition is quite alarming (though it is often not serious), though, as we found out later, Will had quite an "impressive" case! We were amazingly grateful that Aunt Pam arrived from Birmingham to help us through what turned out to be a very long weekend full of lots of worried phone calls and strange home remedies! We are so very blessed to count our pediatrician as a good friend, and we could not have asked for better medical care. This is such a huge blessing to us, particularly since we aren't living near our family. Needless to say, our amazing doctor worked with us all weekend, even helping us avoid a four hour wait at Scottish Rite's ER and getting us an appointment with a fantastic pediatric specialist in his office on a Sunday afternoon!

After visiting with the specialist on Sunday, we thought we'd have four or five days to watch the condition before we knew if Will would need a surgical procedure to help correct it. Patti-Grams came into town on Sunday night, and it wound up to be a great thing that she did because by Monday night, we were back on the phone with the specialist and by Tuesday morning, we were at the hospital waiting for the procedure.

Looking back, I cannot believe how smoothly the entire process was. Will wasn't able to eat until his surgery, which didn't begin until after 3 p.m., but somehow he was distracted by his new Cars coloring book, (purchased by Patti-Grams before we even knew surgery was on the horizon), and he never even asked about food! In fact, both of the kids had better behavior in the hospital waiting room than they often do at home!

Of course, walking off and leaving my baby when he was taken by the amazing team of medical professionals was not something I ever hope to experience again, but I was truly impressed with everyone we encountered throughout the process. The professionalism and yet genuine kindness of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, nurses, and other hospital staff members made me feel secure about the care Will was receiving.

Seeing Will using the hospital bed as a slide just before his procedure made me wonder if he really needed the surgery, but as it turned out, he certainly did need it, and the specialist warned us that it may need to be repeated. Seeing Will scared in the recovery room was the toughest part of the day. The recovery nurse said he was just staring quietly until she said, "Are you looking for your mama?" Apparently, he then went nuts, and when Matt and I made it to the recovery room, the poor nurse was just trying to keep him on the bed. Will struggled a bit through the first part of recovery, but after getting a little more medicine, he calmed down and slept through nearly two hours of traffic and almost through the rest of the night. We woke him to give him his pain medicine, and other than being a little loopy, he recovered nicely.

Though we still have some testing to complete, we feel like we've come through the worst of the ordeal. Will actually recovered better than the specialist thought he might, considering the "impressiveness" of this particular case! (Every medical professional that actually saw Will's "condition" said that they'd never seen anything like it before, and his surgeon actually asked to keep a picture! We're so proud... :)

As simple as our experience turned out to be, I couldn't help but think of parents that routinely have to release their children into the care of medical specialists. It is definitely a reminder that we are not in control, even when as parents we feel like we are. As I watched Will be taken away from us, my heart broke for parents for whom this experience is all too common, except that the procedures their children experience are far more serious. I was also reminded of how very grateful I am for people with medical minds. Their expertise and willingness to help other people is such a precious gift. We were only one family of scores that were helped on that particular Tuesday, yet we were treated as though we were the most important family in the hospital.

At the very end of the day, I was reminded of how very grateful I am for my precious Will. Even with his intense personality, desire to be read to all day long, near obsession with trains, and strange medical ailment, to me, he is the most absolutely perfect boy in the world. I truly love him through and through...top side and bottom side.