Surgery Numero Dos

This past Thursday we took Bentley in for yet another surgery. This time, it was completely unrelated to his eating issues. He was born with an undescended testicle and apparently this is pretty common, but in most boys this problem will correct itself within the first 6-9 months after birth. We've been going to regular check-ups with a Urologist and he wasn't able to see or palpate one in the canal so the only way to know if he had one was to do a laparoscopy. They like to do the surgery at this age, because if it's not taken care of then there is a high risk of the undescended testicle becoming cancerous and causing infertility problems down the road. So we scheduled the surgery and told Bentley the news. This was his reaction:

Say what?

But then we explained that he would get plenty of pain medication, lots of love and attention post-op, and that in a couple of weeks we would push him on the swings for as long as little heart desired. His mood turned around and he conceded to the surgery...

If he really understood what was going to happen, I don't think he would have given us as many happy and smiling pictures in his cute little hospital scrubs. As soon as he come out of the anestheshia the nurses sent for me because he was in complete hysterics. He responded the same way with his last surgery so I sort of expected it, but last time he calmed down as soon as they removed all of his tubes and I was able to walk around with him. This time the nurses refused to remove his IV and unhook all of the monitors until he had calmed down and had something to drink. The result...he NEVER calmed down. He didn't want anything to do with his bottle and he was completely incosolable. Their only solution was to put him back to sleep with some Demerol with the assumption that he would wake up the second time much more compliant. Here's my poor little man knocked out in order to get a reprieve from all of his screaming:

If you haven't already figured out where this story is heading, he woke up the second time exactly like the first. The nurses were at such a loss for how to help that they finally heeded my request to remove all of his tubes. Wouldn't you know it...as SOON as they did this and I was able to walk around with him he stopped screaming and we were able to leave. What's that saying..."Mama knows best"?

Anyway, I know this is long but now I will get to the results of the laparoscopy. The doctor found the testicle in his canal, but then had to make a second incision and perform an Orchiopexy to remove it because as he referred to it, the testicle "was just a nubbin." He thinks that on it's descent down (in utero) it got twisted and it's blood supply was cut off so it was no longer functional. The doctor did however assure us that his manhood was still intact and that he should still be able to have children with just one testicle. I'm just glad that he was able to locate it and remove it so that the fear of it causing future problems no longer exists. Bentley was pretty worn out the rest of the day, but has been doing well ever since (other than those pesky little teeth that are trying to emerge). This is the incision from the laparoscopy. He has another incision lower down, but I wanted to spare him some decency. The end.

Sidenote: I feel weird that I just wrote a post with so many uses of the word "testicle." Sorry if this is offensive to anyone!