ANOTHER CONQUEST FOR THE CONQUEROR

I can hardly believe that it is almost a full week since Sam's op. My weeks of anxiety and emotional trauma at, what I had convinced myself to believe up until two days before the op, would be such an incredibly frightening experience. And? Of course there was no incredibly frightening experience. The truth? There is nothing...ABSOLUTELY NOTHING...I can think of that would have made the experience any smoother or easier to handle. Sam was a little edgy during the hour and a half before the op as it meant he had to wake up and travel to the hospital without having his "wake-up" feed. But once we got to Vincent Pallotti we were admitted literally within 5 minutes (even though we were actually half an hour late), and twenty minutes later we were already on our way into theatre, the pre-op observations, etc all taken care of by the wonderful nursing staff.

I went into the theatre with Sam, who sat on my lap, and after just the second line of "Wheels on the bus" Sam was asleep. An hour and a bit later Dr Burke (the anaesthesioligist) came to call me as Sam was in the recovery room and waking up and they told me to actually climb into the cot with him and hold him as he started rousing. The first hour and a bit after he woke up was quite difficult as obviously Sam was hugely disorientated, his throat became dry from all the crying and he started gagging and wheezing, but we gave him some sugar water and then he settled down with his bottle (albeit still half asleep). Sam was also given a local anaesthetic in both hands which lasted ten hours after the op to ease whatever pain he might have.

We completely credit our awesome and wonderful God with the ease and grace at which Sam went through his operation, but still have to acknowledge the most amazing, caring and stunning doctors and nurses that were responsible for caring for Sam for those twenty-four hours. I mean who ever heard of an anaesthetist going to check on one of their six patients for that morning, down in high care...even once? Well, Dr Spencer Burke checked on Sam THREE TIMES in the twenty-four hours he was in high-care, as did the paediatrician we had only met the day before the operation, Dr Carl Wicht. And of course, a job well done to Dr Steve Carter who not only did an amazing job on Sam's thumbs but indulged me yesterday when I started worrying that the gauze around Sam's hands was becoming too damp due to his palmar hyperhidrosis (excessive handsweating) and insisted we bring Sam in so that he could have a look and reassured me that all was well and we needn't worry.

So, as I mentioned, Sam stayed in high-care overnight on Thursday evening just to be monitored because of his OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnoea) and the other related concerns with RTS and anaesthetic, but all went well and he had a pretty peaceful night even with eight really short apnoea's which only lasted 10 seconds each time and didn't even cause him to desat. One of the nurses even managed to give him some meds at about 1am in this mouth, with a syringe....and he just slept and swallowed right through it...not a peep of a sound. So Friday morning we were okayed to go home, which was great! And of course Mr de Beer Jnr is extremely spoilt, even more so now than before, as he has absolutely NO downtime during the day (downtime being any micro-second which might be spent anywhere else other than on mine or Grampa's or Luke's arm) Although he is becoming incredibly frustrated with not being able to use his hands, Sam doesn't seem to be in any kind of pain and is most definitely taking full advantage of his condition - clever chap.

I have to brag about what a brave little boy this conqueror is though...within hours of the operation he was smiling and chatting to anyone who happened to wander into his ward and was really such an absolute pleasure that we were asked if he was always so "joyful" and you know what? When we really sit and think about, even through his occasional hysteria-episodes with therapy, etc and even though I spend hours upon hours each day singing Wheels-on-the-Bus (I must at some stage post about the many variations I have had to create in order to make the song last longer) to get him to sleep, eat, calm, etc he really, genuinely is a little boy that is so completely filled with JOY...our little Joyful Smurf!

About half an hour after coming out of recovery Sam slept-sucked through his first bottle of day

A bit more awake and started to check out his new "suite".

With the help of a little morphine, Sam even managed some downtime in the hospital. This was on Thursday afternoon, about three hours after the operation.

Friday morning and all ready to leave!

Sam's first bath after the operation, plastic bags and all. Excuse the

lovely pink washcloth mind you, it was the first thing I could find

to cover those sensitive areas before Chris snapped the pic.

So our little man is well on the road to recovery. On Monday we go back to Dr Carter for him to remove the bandages and fit the splints. We also got some great news from Dr Perrot on Monday that the glaucoma examination he did while Sam was under, came back 100% negative for glaucoma or any other problems with his eyes! Yay!

"The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them."

Psalm 145 :18-19

"I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you "Do not fear; I will help you.'"

Isaiah 41:13