First post-op visit

Corbin was a hit at the doctor's office this evening. So much that his sweet little story-telling even brought a smile to a very weary Dr. Reinisch.  Corbin was babbling on about having wires and bandages and other funny stuff. Dr. R pulled a nurse over and said, "we should put him on the video talking about the surgery." Corbin was so well behaved; he didn't care at all when the physician's assistant took his bandages off. In fact he asked her very pointedly- "Hey Doctor! Where is your laundry room here? Mine is close to my bedroom, but my bathroom is even closer." She looked at his distended belly and said, "Woah! He really needs to go to the bathroom." And that has been one of our big concerns too- he is very constipated. Poor thing tells us five times a day that he needs to pooh. Anyway, he was there standing up on the chair, cup over his ear with a velcro strap sutured to his head, a black and swollen eye, and a huge belly just smiling and chatting away. I REALLY can learn some lessons from my boy. He is so patient, so tolerant, such a trooper...
He chatted with the receptionist about vacuums. He mentioned a Oreck to her and she looked at us very puzzled. If only she knew him, this would be a huge relief. Hearing Corbin talk about his old,familiar subjects brought joy to my heart. It's a reminder that he really is going to be okay. The road to recovery is long and he will endure discomfort for a while. It will be swollen for the better part of a year, but he is going to be so happy to have two ears.  One of his first questions today when the hat came off was: "what happened to my hair?" So freaking cute. He wasn't really all that upset. Just wanted to know what happened. My mother pointed out that we are so vain as adults. She said that we would have been looking in the mirror feeling bad about ourselves for being bald or feeling ugly because our eyes were swollen and our head was bandaged up. It's the truest thing I've heard lately. Corbin hasn't asked once to see himself. He is innocent, sweet, and very precious! When we got back from the visit, we all hovered around the box of gourmet cupcakes and said, "he really deserves this." Again, we're such ruined adults. We view things so differently. He ate half a cupcake and said, "I'll save the rest for later. That was good." He didn't view it as a treat for enduring this traumatic surgery. He jus likes cupcakes and when he'd had enough, he stopped. I have been eating so much to cope with being sad for him. I realized today that he's not sad for himself at all. He is uncomfortable, and he has a lot of questions, but he's not sulking. I need to suck it up! Oh, one more thing- we were invited back to Dr. Reinisch's office to give a pep talk to a family that will endure the surgery sometime next week. The mother was so tearful and I told her I totally understood. Her son was middle school age, and she had so much apprehension, but I brought Corbin over and said, "it's truly a blessing to be able to give him this gift."  Her other two sons had been telling her to toughen up. It's almost impossible for a mama to do that. You feel like your heart is being ripped out when you see your child in pain. Everything checked out fine with Corbo today and he is on the road to recovery.

Watching a video of Splat the Cat after our doctor visit.