She was born with an umbilical hernia, which is actually pretty common in African American girls. Of those born with it, 85% correct themselves by the age of two, the other 15% get a referral to pediatric surgery. You can guess which category C fell into.
We never made a big deal of her having an outie button, so when it came time to talk about “fixing it” she said things like, “but my button isn’t broken or sick”. This broke my heart, because she was right, this was nothing more than a cosmetic surgery. We were told to tell her, “don’t you want a belly button that looks like mommy's and daddy’s?”, but we couldn’t bring ourselves to say that. The truth of the matter is, she doesn’t look like us and we don’t want her to feel like she should try. Not gonna happen. So came the conversation of "living outside where it is cold, or living inside where it is warm, and there is a bed to sleep in and toys to play with, etc.” you get the drift. I mean really, who wouldn’t want their belly button to live inside?!?! That brings us back to yesterday, surgery day.
We arrived at American Family Children’s Hospital bright and early, C was excited! She was even more excited when, upon arrival, she got to pick a new toy out, and wouldn’t you know, they had a ballerina barbie. Dreams really do come true at AFCH folks. We got all checked in, met a ton of people, including:
Check in person
Child Life Specialist
Nurse 1
Pediatric Surgery Attending
Surgery resident doctor
Pediatric anesthesiologist
Anesthesiology resident
Nurse 2
and that was just before the surgery! Seriously, at one point after the surgery, C was eating a popsicle and someone else came in, then left, and Colbie said, “so, who’s gonna come in next?” Our thoughts exactly.
Anyway, C got into her gown, started watching a movie, and then her and I made our way to the OR with the nurse and Child Life Specialist by our side. I sang her to sleep while they “gassed her down”, went back and waited with the hubs for only about 30 minutes. Next thing we know, the surgeon comes in, tells us Colbie did great and everything was done. It wasn’t long after that we were by her side again as she woke up.
By 10:30 Colbie was eating popsicles, had her IV out and we were getting discharge paperwork!
At home, I set Colbie up on the couch with everything she might need. She did great resting, watching shows and eating popsicles throughout the day with only limited pain.
And...luckily for us, Syd was pretty easy going yesterday and took a long nap giving Colbie and mama lots of snuggle time.
The only bump in the road thus far is that Colbie REFUSES to look at her belly because she’s “too scared”. Once the dressing comes off, I’m hoping fear will go away. Overall, a total trooper, and this mama couldn’t be more proud.
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