Hilarity in pre-op

K. did just fine yesterday and we are all back home and in recovery mode. Not long after I wrote yesterday's post, the hospital called and asked in we could come in early. So we quickly scrambled to get ready and out the door and managed to get up to the hospital fairly close to when they wanted.

We got all checked in and settled in one of the prep rooms. K. looked at the books and various nurses came in and asked the questions they needed to ask. The staff was great. K. had brought two stuffed animals and a blanket and by the time we were taken to pre-op, K.'s friends were sporting ID bands to match his, the dog also had a surgical mask and hat, and the cow had a band-aid affixed to his ear where he had a small tear.

And then we waited and waited and waited. It turns out the surgeon's previous patient ended up taking much longer than he anticipated and K. didn't actually go into surgery until 3pm. But that does not mean we were not without a little entertainment during that time. At about 2:30 or so, the nurses came in and rushed around and K. was given his dose of Versed to relax him. Now, when H. had Versed, it just made her tired and a little groggy... not so with K.

Now K. is a funny guy to begin with, but K. doped up with Versed? You just can't imagine. Right after he took the medicine they wheeled up into the pre-op room and drew the curtain. We noticed that he was getting a little silly when the nurse asked him who he had brought with him and K. looks at J. and says, "My Daddy!" and then looks at me, pauses for a second, and says, "My sister!" The silliness escalated until about five minutes before they took him back, J. asks K. if he wants to sing a song, thinking he would pick something calming since K. was supposed to be relaxing. K. says no, then nearly immediately bursts into a very loud and very long and very stream of consciousness song about... well... I'm not really sure. Had I known it was going to be so hilarious, though, I would have started to take dictation immediately. As it was, I can only remember a little bit of it, so it really doesn't do it justice. The song began along the lines of:

My name is peanut butter

My name is peanut butter

My name is peanut butter

It then moved on through any number of random and unexpected things to end something like this:

The fireman 

In charge of the fireman

In charge of the fireman

Go see the judge

Policeman!

At which point, almost immediately his eyes rolled back in his head and his head falls back on the pillow and he is out.

For about five seconds.

He then comes to again and starts with more random and silly talk. This time around though, the Versed is really starting to kick-in, so he does drop back asleep for seconds at a time periodically. (Having had Versed, I know how difficult it is to remain fully conscious. And because it does a job on ones memory, it can cause you to ask every two minutes if the babies are alright and can you see them, even though you swear you only asked once... but I digress.) It was very like watching your young son become rip roaring drunk. All he needed was a bottle in a brown paper bag. By the time he was wheeled in for surgery, I was laughing so hard I was in tears. The nurses on the other side of the curtain were pretty amused as well, judging by the amount of laughing we heard.

The surgery went very well. It only took an hour and the surgeon was pleased. He also recovered very quickly and, true to form, his first words in recovery were, "I'm hungry." So we went to a room, he ate a variety of things, watched a movie, and we went home. Thank goodness we have good friends who don't mind having 9 children invade them until 9:30 at night.

So, all is well with K., though we have had to remind him multiple times that he CANNOT run. It will be a long three weeks.