Deja Vu all over agian

Here I am again, sitting in the waiting room with Rebecca, waiting for Thomas to come up from Surgery. It gave me time to think up alternate titles for the blog. Here they are:

Sixth time is the charm

If its Tuesday, it must be surgery day

Why is it that nothing good ends up happening when I'm laying in my bed without any clothes on

I guess a little explaining would make these titles make sense. Or I could move on and wonder why anyone would want to watch a show like House while sitting in a hospital waiting room. Kind of like making the in flight movie "Concorde 79". But yet here I sit, and the show is on. Anyway, back to the titles and explanations:

Sixth time is the charm: This one is fairly easy. This is Thomas' sixth surgery. Pretty crazy when you think about it. We're definitely not used to it, but I don't know if its hitting quite the same as the last couple times. The first surgeries were all about survival, so there wasn't much to consider or think about. The next ones came after we'd gotten really attached to Thomas and it was a little more scary and real, if that makes sense. This one is hopefully a means to an end, getting him home. They say this procedure is no big deal, so we were not nervous really walking into this one. Still didn't want Thomas to go through it, but we were cool, calm and collected.

***Spoiler Alert***
Since I'm trying to write this real time, the doctor just came in and told us that everything went well. So if you're reading this, then you already know how things turn out. Don't spoil it for everyone else. And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

If its Tuesday, it must be Surgery Day: Just a bunch of surgeries going on today. Three in Thomas' room alone. Based on the headcount, that's 50% of the population, but then again, maybe his room is throwing off the curve. It gave me pause to think what kind of lifestyle it must be for a surgeon, bouncing from procedure to procedure, where some one's life is in your hands. It must be very exhilarating, but then again, its probably somewhat common place for them after a while. I know I got that way when I worked at Wendy's in high school. It stopped even looking like food to me. Probably not the best comparison, but there's a correlation there somewhere (yes, I just compared surgery to making a double with cheese and I'm going to stand by it).

Why is it that nothing good ends up happening when I'm laying in my bed without any clothes on: Maybe I'll just leave this one unexplained...

Well no, I won't. Prepping for surgery in the NICU involves starving Thomas, which he really didn't care for, putting lines into both arms for IV drips, which he really, really doesn't care for, and just hanging out in a diaper for easier access I guess. Since he's been wearing clothes for a few weeks, it was weird seeing him hang out shirtless.

I guess I should tell you what the surgery is for. Thomas has 2 hernias in his lower abdomen. They are about the size of golf balls now, so they are probably uncomfortable, I'm guessing. Way too many sit ups and crunches. The doctor (Dr. Hermann for those tracking with their Baylor playing cards) has decided to go ahead and repair both at the same time. The hope is that this may help with Thomas' feeding. We'll see.

Since I'm blogging away and I told you the outcome of the surgery (its in the spoiler alert above, if you didn't read it) and we're waiting to go see Thomas, I will throw in another addition of Mike's Observation Corner. While we were waiting with Thomas to go down for surgery, Rebecca revealed something that I hadn't noticed before. Thomas' ear lobes are attached to his head, as are Rebecca's. Mine are not. Rebecca's dad's are not, but her mom's are. I have determined that this is the Calhoun curse (Me Ann's maiden name. I'm waiting on confirmation of ear lobe attachment/detachment from Leigh and Uncle Bill). This horrible affliction may haunt Thomas forever. Probably not, since I had never noticed Rebecca's ear lobes. She has either kept it hidden all these years through the clever use of hair, shadows and positioning, or I'm just not that observant (ironic since its my "observation" corner). Either way I feel tricked. :)