The Pre-Surgery Soak

Tomorrow is the big day. We go in at 6 and surgery is scheduled for 7:30 AM. It is a day surgery and not a big deal in the grand scheme of things that require an operation.

There's one little catch though. When the neurologist finally put a name on Max's low muscle tone, he called it Central Core Disease. Anything with disease attached to it sounds bad, but again, if I had to choose one for my son to have, this one is not too bad. When I asked the neurologist how this diagnosis would come into play, he said hardly ever. "Except," he noted, "he's at risk for Malignant Hypothermia if he ever has to go under general anesthesia." This he informed me, could cause him to go into cardiac arrest on the table. That part was scary, but honestly I thought, the kid is three, I won't have to worry about this for a very long time. In fact, I was more worried that I'd forget about it before it ever came into play.

Yet, here we are six months later. We can now add to the list of our doctors a plastic surgeon and an anesthesiologist who I won't allow to touch my son until I speak to him personally. Our plastic surgeon is amazing and said that I could tell the anesthesiologist that he can perform the sugary without having Max intubated. That's what we're hoping. He also assured me that the drugs that cause Malignant Hypothermia are hardly ever used anymore.

All good news. But then there's that crazy he's my baby and I like to be able to control things that go on in his life at this stage. I like to feel like I can protect him from all pain and everything bad. But after this and this, I know I can't, but it doesn't stop making me want to. This is why God gives children to mothers. This protective instinct, it comes with the territory.

Tomorrow we’ll hand him over and we’ll pray like crazy until we see him again. He’ll be no worse for the wear, save a few stitches. I’ll thank God for His protection and pray that this will be the end of surgeries for my children…at least for a little while.

But tonight, oh tonight was for a good long soak in the tub and a late night snack after the big kids went to bed. It was a night to relish the sweet smell of this angel in my care. It was a night for an extra snuggle and night worthy of recording the every day singing that still makes me swoon.