Ben's Surgery -UPDATED- has pre-op video

Ben had surgery last Wednesday to remove a cyst above his left eye. He has had the cyst for about a year and it was hardly visible. On his last check up, his pediatrician sent us to an ophthalmologist to look his cyst because it is so close to his eye. Well, in that visit we found out that he needed glasses. It turns out that the vision in his left eye is much worse than the vision in his right eye. If we would have not found this out, he could have lost function in his left eye. Anyway, the ophthalmologist sent us to a pediatric plastic surgeon to look at the cyst. It was a dermoid cyst and needed to be removed. So, he needs glasses, has to wear a patch and have surgery above his eye. He has had a busy fall!!!

Ben was a little bit upset about having to have the surgery, but overall, he seemed ok. He had his adenoids removed last December and did great! Because he had done so well then, I really wasn't that worried about it. I also kept thinking it was such a small thing.

When Ben had his adenoid surgery, Donna (Ben's aunt) and I both forgot our cameras, but more importantly, forgot our video cameras. Once he put on his hospital gown, he became a character. He started dancing around the room, shooting baskets in the toy basket ball goal they had in the room...he just couldn't keep still. He was just a ball of nervous energy. The funniest thing was that he kept doing the River Dance. So this time, I brought the camera/video camera. He was still a little ham, but he has grown up in the past 10 months so the performance wasn't quite as manic. I will try and post some video with pictures.

He was in a pretty good mood waiting for the surgery. The surgery center is set up so well for children. He had a couple of moments when he acted nervous, but for the most part he kept busy. When he wasn't dancing around the room, he played video games.

They let me walk back with him into the operating room and stay with him while they put him under. He was really nervous then. They put the mask on his face and just gave him laughing gas at first. He said it was making him sleepy. They then said that they were going to add something that some people say smells like stinky feet...at that point, he got really upset and said he didn't want to do this (can you blame him?). He was really upset, but then he just kind of went to sleep. It was sad to see him so upset.

Donna and I were in the post op area for about 20 min when the doctor came in and said that they were done. He said everything went well...they went in through his eyebrow and scraped the cyst off of his bone. He said that Ben would have a gauze around his head. When they rolled Ben in, he had this huge white gauze bandage wrapped around his head and his face was all swollen. I was really surprised....I just didn't expect all of the swelling to remove a cyst. He was a little upset when he woke up from his anesthesia, but he was pretty good. He drank a lot of gatorade (he was really motivated to get the iv out) and had a couple of crackers.

On the way home, Donna sat in the back seat with him. He slept for the most part, but got sick near the end. Thank goodness they gave us the vomit bag. This is the first time ever that Ben has thrown up in the car that it has been in a bag!!!

He slept the rest of the afternoon, but was back to himself that evening. We all signed his bandages that night. His eye was swollen for several days and went through several different colors, but he looks and feels great now!

Playing Star Wars Video Games

Just Back From Surgery

On Our Way Home

Badge of Honor


Here is some of the video I took of Ben dancing around before surgery. I took this video with our new camera. Sorry about the bad camera work. Hopefully I will do better next time. Some of his funniest moves didn't make it for public viewing :)