A Tumor

Derek had his foot surgery on Monday morning.  It turns out the growth wasn't a cyst at all (I knew it wasn't).  It was a tumor.  By the looks of it, it's definitely benign, but of course it was sent to the lab to be tested.  So we should hear back in a few days.

We took him to the Surgery Center at 6:00 am.  He was hungry and a little upset that he really had to get surgery.  We've been explaining to him what surgery is and why he needs it on his foot.  He knew that if he was brave when he got back home both Grandma's would be there with balloons and presents.  That's all it took.  The anesthesiologist came and got him at 7:30.  Derek went with him willingly and didn't even look back at us.

Forty five minutes later the surgeon came out and told us he is in recovery and we could go back shortly.  That's when he showed us a picture of what he removed and told us that it was a tumor.  He said Derek did excellent.

When we came back to see him he had fallen back to sleep.  When he woke up he gave us a big smile and continued to fall in and out of sleep.  After about an hour the nurse took out his IV and we were on our way home.

How is the patient doing, you ask?  Much better today.  Yesterday he was a little out of it, and nauseated from the anesthesia.  He threw up all over my couch. When I went to help him, he threw up all over me.  First time being thrown up on since becoming a mom... not too bad. 

He can't walk on his foot at all.  The doctor said by today he should be able to try to walk, but he says it hurts too bad.  He just started hopping around on it this morning.  He's managing a lot better than I expected.  Doesn't complain too much, but he definitely lets us know when the pain meds wear off.

We have to keep the bandanes on until his post-op appointment in 10 days.  So he will just have to wear a sock over his foot.  We were hoping he would be able to go back to preschool next week, but I'm not sure how that will go over with no shoe.  I just see a kid stepping on his foot.

Meanwhile, it's tiring lifting and carrying 45 pounds around all day, up and down stairs, outside, inside, back outside... and so on.  I can't imagine how hard it is to care for a disabled person.  This is hard enough.

So until he decides he can walk, we'll continue doing stuff like this:

And this:

And this:

Nothing is getting accomplished over here.  The laundry sits, the house is messy.  But Derek thinks he deserves full attention all the time since he has a hurt foot... and I agree.