The Cubby Chronicles XLIV

Jake's a little apprehensive heading into surgery

Note: Jacob Raymond Walker was born 12 weeks prematurely at Duke University Hospital the morning of Monday, May 19 2008. The following are updates, notes, & observations on his growth & development.

Looking back on things, it probably wasn't the best time to take a break from the blog with the last post noting that Jake was heading into surgery. The Twitter updates, of course, were made on schedule & posted on the side column on the front page. However, if you forgot about them, if you were new to the blog, or if you just read the posts it would be quite a cliffhanger.

Thankfully, everything turned out just fine. Of course like most things at the hospital, the actual process took way longer than they needed to. We had to show up at 7:30 AM--two hours before the surgery was even scheduled & he didn't even go back to the OR until 10:20. Finally, around 1:00 we were able to head back to the recovery area and be with him.

In the recovery area, drinking some glucose water

The Recovery area is an interesting place as its just a large room with a bunch of beds & monitors with nothing but curtains between them. We were assigned a nice nurse & chatted with the surgeon (who went to undergrad at Michigan) who said that everything went well.

It was bizarre to see Jake strapped again to all the monitors (heart rate, breathing, oxygen saturation, & blood pressure) and certainly made me think of all those weeks he was hooked up to them just 4 floors above the recovery room. Thankfully he was as stable as could be--a far cry from his early days & constant & consistent proof of how he's come.

We were in the recovery area for about an hour & a half & then we were released to his private room on the 7th floor. The little guy did great with the surgery & the recovery & slept most of the afternoon & evening.

He was certainly hungry when he woke up but the overnight stay was uneventful--at least for him. Since there was only one bed available & I wasn't going to leave my wingman, I spent the night on an egg shell crate on the floor. Good times...

We got up early & after a couple of hours to get us discharged (everything takes longer than it should in hospitals it seems) we were on the road back home. Since it was Halloween he left the hospital in his costume....