Mason's Surgery!

We just wanted to tell everyone thank you for all your love and support. The help, comments, phone calls, messages, prayers and thoughts were all so appreciated. We are definitely blessed. Mason is doing great now, he is as happy as ever! Here are some pictures of our tough little Masey.

Pre-surgery: It was totally breaking our hearts that he was SO happy that day!

We had to be at the hospital at 8:30am and his surgery was scheduled at 9:30, but there ended up being an emergency, so he didn't go back until about 11:30. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. They let us walk him back with the Anesthesiologist, and at the door we just had to hand him over. He was fine, and went right with her, but Shane and I were not! There were more than a few tears shed then. So hard.

The surgery lasted about 7 hours total. It consisted of two anesthesiologists (the first one had trouble with his picc line) and two surgeons (one neurosurgeon and one plastic surgeon). When they took out his breathing tube after surgery, he stopped breathing, so he had to have another one put in, that's what's in his nose besides the oxygen tube. That made our hearts stop when we heard that, but thankfully once they put the tube back in he was fine. We finally got to see him in the ICU where he stayed for the first night.

Evening after surgery: so hard to see him like this and not be able to hold him.

We went back to our hotel (Ronald McDonald house) that night to sleep for a while because there wasn't anywhere for us to stay at the hospital - all the sleeping rooms were full. But that turned out to be a blessing because the next morning I woke up feeling awful and realized I had strep throat (AGAIN). The worst possible timing ever. We had to drive around SLC just to find an OPEN urgent care that accepted our insurance, and then I had to spend 24 hours away from Mason. Cried some very hard tears that day! But Shane was there, and Shane's parents, so Masey was in good hands, but I missed him immensely. Thankfully my parents and sister came and rescued me for a few hours.

Day One Recovery: It almost looks like he is smiling in this picture, but he just had this blank stare in his eyes, and we knew he was hurting because they couldn't keep his heart rate under control with pain medication. The nurses were on the verge of sending him back to the ICU, but he finally started to respond to the medicine.

Starting to get a little more swollen.

Day Two Recovery: After seeing this we loving starting calling him "shark bait"

The surgery consisted of completely removing the top part of his skull and breaking it apart to reshape it and open the fused suture. We estimated he had about 120 stitches on the outside and numerous dissolvable plates and screws on the inside. So amazing that they can do that.

Day Three Recovery: Getting even more swollen, poor little guy.

Notice the mask...
Shane's little brother had brought him this balloon, and he would not let go of it for the life of him. Even when he fell asleep, he knew when we took it out of his hands and demanded it back!!
Once we got through this day, his swelling started looking so much better, and his little personality started to come back. He was batting that balloon around like crazy!
Day Four Recovery: Waiting to go home!! Mase was feeling so much better, and we were glad to have our little monkey back. We were also ready to pick up Jake, and go HOME!

We are so relieved to have that over with, and so grateful that besides this little bump, we have such healthy boys. Being at that hospital definitely made us realize how lucky we are. We love our little "shark bait" and are so glad that he is home and back to his old self - new head and all.