I just thought I'd let you all know that we decided to go forward with the bi-orchioplexy and hernia repair in the morning. We had originally thought to have a different surgeon do it, but since Dwight was laid off and we may be changing insurance we decided to go ahead and do it tomorrow.
The surgery is an out-patient surgery. They will make two small incisions, one on each side of the genitals. We are hoping to find both testes are normally developed and that they just never descended. When they do find them, hopefully, they will simply need to be pulled down into the scrotum. There is a chance of them being "tethered", which will mean a little more work. Let's just pray that's not the case.
Once they have both testes in the scrotum, they will put a stitch through each one and pull the thread outside the scrotum and attach it to a button. Yes, a button ... just like what you find on shirts ... except it will be a medical grade, extremely clean button (at least to start). Then they will repair the hernia that is usually there with undescended testicals.
The button will stay on until everything has healed and then it will be removed.
If I don't make it back on tomorrow to give you an update it means that we have spent the night at the hospital. While it is an outpatient surgery, Ryan has become very non-responsive to small things that other children handle without any problem. Therefore, the surgeon recommended that we plan to spend the night. If there's any doubt as to how medically stable he is, we will spend the night. I appreciate that they are not intending to rush us out the door.
So, we do expect everything to go very smoothly, but please remember us in your prayers, and even more importantly please remember the Surgeon and his staff in your prayers. We love and appreciate you all and count each of you -- even you blog stalkers :) -- as one of our blessings.
