A week long of OUCH!

On Monday (2/23) we took both boys in to get them circumcised. In the adoption world this is sometimes a very hot topic. Did I say hot? I meant HOT. We decided to get it done because 1-hygiene and boys, not a good combination; 2-health; 3-the skin was not coming back like it should be starting to on either of them.

We had Jace go first because he was more aware that something was going on. The cocktail of versed and Tylenol did nothing to him. It didn't relax him but rather woke him up as he was just falling asleep because it was nap time. (We have some very cute pictures of the boys in their gowns, on the bed together, and also post-op but they are stuck on our cell phone and we don't know how to get them off.) We also learned that Tylenol with codeine makes him wide eyed too.

Jovi on the other was quite funny once he had the cocktail. I brought a mini magna doodle for them to play with and we were drawing things for Jovi. When we drew a horse/cow, he combined their sound: imagine the word moo being whinnied like the horse sound neigh. It was funny. Another time we drew a smiley face and he just leaned over almost nose to nose to it and just stared at it. He really was quite loopy.

The boys made it through their surgeries just fine. It took them about an hour to wake. They looked so sweet just laying their sleeping. This isn't something we hardly ever see because both are light sleepers and when you go into their room they wake up.

Once home we had to call the doctor. Great doctor. If you want a referral in the area I'll be glad to give one. We had Jovi just kind of chilling, drinking water, relaxing, and we had Jace completely hysterical, screaming, and still trying to demand we give him certain things. I'm sure it did hurt, but the doctor said the local they gave them in the surgery room should last 6-8 hours and it had only been 4 hours. He called them in Tylenol w/codeine and off I went to get more bandages and the med. He said he didn't like to give it to kids because it can make them gassy. Guess who got gas and kept us awake all night? Go ahead, guess. Eventually I moved him into our bed during the night so we wouldn't have to keep going into the other room. Jovi was already in the pack-n-play in our room. But no one slept.

The doctor told us to use Jovi as the barometer for how they were feeling because he could see easily after Jovi's surgery and how Jace was behaving that Jace was all about drama. All night Jovi slept on his back, if he was awake, he just layed there. Jace kept going to his tummy and yelling and crying about it hurting. Well, son, get off our your surgery spot!

Tues, Wed, Thurs saw us still dealing with Jace's drama. When he thought you weren't looking he would hop around, climb on furniture, climb on Adam, and move like there was no problem. When you were looking he would walk with his legs apart and gingerly move. Jovi on the other hand was moving pretty well by Wed. Both boys were coming back to life and behaving like we thought they would.

Jace also refused to pee for a long time and as a result peed on the carpet Monday night, one time Tuesday and 2x on the kitchen/bathroom floor. By Wed he knew better but still peed on the floor. The doctor did not want Jace going to the bathroom by himself nor holding himself given his affinity for picking at things. The last thing we need were pulled out stitches. So we would have to take Jace every time. And every time he would cry and tell us it hurt, but the doctor said it did not hurt him to go pee because there was nothing done to his hole to cause any kind of pain. Just drama. He also would not poop, so he went from Sunday to Wednesday late before he pooped. Not good for his body at all. No wonder he had stomach pains.

Jovi just got busy with peeing and pooping right away. No hangups for this kid.

So what did the doctor say? Initially he thought he might have to adjust the hole on Jace because you could not see any of it. He didn't but he said he had never seen that much scaring from infection on a child that young. He said Jovi looked like he had 2-3 infections over time, but Jace had several of them. The skin was stuck very bad to the tip and he had to cut it off the tip which is why we had so much bleeding from him. Jovi's wasn't stuck nearly as bad, which is why we could pull his skin back further.

On Friday I called to see what he thought about Jace still bleeding. I love that this doctor actually gets on the phone with you. I told him I was about 3 blocks away, and that he said the bleeding should stop by Wed, so he let us come in. They took us right back, but after 10 min of waiting the other kids needed to come in also. So I went back to get them. After 10 more minutes, he came in and wound up taking a look at both boys. Now we don't have to go back 2 weeks. Both look fine and normal. He said for about 6 months it will still look rough, but then it will be fine.

If I had to do this over again, I don't think I would do them both at the same time. Monday was not a fun day at all. At the same time, it got it over. But Monday was just a bad day no matter how you look at it. The things we endure as parents.

So what did we learn from all of this? We learned that if you have an uncircumcised (adopted) son, you should get him checked out by a urologist. The doctor said he had never seen so much scar tissue from infections on such small children. He didn't know if it was a normal Asian thing or if it was just bad hygiene on the part of the foster families. He said had we not done it now, they would have had to endure this as teenagers going through puberty because there would have most definitely been ripping and bleeding then. And it probably would have been a whole lot more painful. At least get them checked out, because you never know what germ can be lurking in a place you can't see.