They came in to get us, and both grandmas, Aunt Shawn, Alyssa and Alexis kissed Dominick and said bye. Ryan and I asked to walk with him to the pre-op room and to go as far as we could before letting him go. We sat in the room with many others waiting to go into surgery, met lots of the team that would be in the operating room and anxiously awaited them coming to take him back. Lucky for us, we feel in love with the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. We met the nurse that would be with him in the PICU if he needed to go, and we were also prepped as to what he might look like coming out of surgery. The time came to say good bye and I lost it. I was holding myself together pretty well, but when someone asks you to leave your crying baby it is a terrible feeling. I said I wanted to seriously walk until I could not walk with him anymore. They let us walk right up to the door and they asked us again to say good bye. There are honestly no words in the English language to how this moment made me realize how much I was in love with my son. Ryan hugged and kissed him and I did the same. Right as I handed him over to the team of professionals and doctors, I felt as though I was having an out of body experience. I lost myself in that moment. It was in that moment I cried harder than I have ever cried in my life. Nothing could have prepared me for the emotions I was going to feel. I was crying so hard I actually could not speak, could barely walk, and it is safe to say I had trouble breathing. We had to give our phone number to the front desk to get update texts on how the surgery was going, and Ryan had to talk because I just was gasping for air. I went out side, put my hands over my head, and tried taking deep breaths to calm down. Once I got myself together, Ryan and I headed to a near-by friends house and showered and rested. We went to Chili’s with friends and family and tried having a peaceful day since we knew we were in for the journey of our life. Once we got back to the hospital we sat in the waiting room for hours waiting for the final text! (Throughout the day, the hospital sent us text messages about how it was going… things like, starting surgery, port in, Dominick is doing well, working on tumor, tumor is out, Dominick is doing well, and the final one was a phone number to call because he was ready to be seen! It is amazing they can do this! Everyone said they started doing this so parents would leave the hospital, get something to eat, and not just sit around and wait by the door.)
We called the number and the surgeon answered, came and showed us the pictures of the tumor (6 inches long, 2.5lbs), then took us up to see our baby. He went in around 11:45am and we got to go see him at almost 7pm, so it is safe to say we were excited beyond words to see out baby boy. The surgeon said he rarely sees kids that don’t have to go to the PICU for a few days after an operation, but his breathing tube was out, and he was on his way back to the cancer ward and NO PICU. His scar had no bandage and was already healing! This kid was amazing and stronger than Ryan and I would have been. In the recovery room we could not stop smiling and taking pictures! We were so thrilled to see him doing so well and thriving like a grown man! Around 9pm we got to go back to our room. This has to go down in history as the longest day of my life!
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