Oh Tanner!

Same kid. Two stories. Mike called me on my way to work the other day to tell me Tanner filled his underwear full of sand and tracked it all over the house. What is wrong with him? Who does that? The next day, Landen was going off about this soccer team they played and how he didn't like them because they kept pushing him. I was telling Landen he needed to calm down. Tanner turned to him and in all seriousness said, "Yeah, Landen. What would Jesus think?" Tanner actually must listen in church!

Tanner Gets Surgery

A few months ago, Mike and I noticed some changes in Tanner's privates. I won't go into further detail about that, but we took him to our pediatrician and he felt Tanner had a hernia. A week later we visited a general surgeon at Primary Children's and he confirmed a hernia and said he would need to get it repaired surgically.

I was nervous about this. Mike has had two hernia repairs and he had to be down for over a week. Can you imagine trying to keep my most active child Tanner down for a whole week? The surgeon assured me that this isn't the case with kids. Tanner would be fine after a few days and I wouldn't have to keep him down. That's why I love working in pediatrics. Kids are so tough!

Landen's tonsillectomy was a nightmare, so I tried to prepare Tanner the best I could about the surgery. We talked about the gas mask and being able to choose a flavor to help him sleep. I told him how mommy and daddy would only be able to walk him so far before the doctor would take him by himself, we talked about the yummy foods he could pick out to eat after including hopefully getting an orange sippy cup (his favorite color) to drink apple juice in. I even told him he could sleep in mommy's bed for two nights after the surgery.


Well, all my prepping worked or maybe Tanner just thought he was getting a lot of attention. He was so wild the morning of the surgery. I am not sure he understood what was really happening. I kept thinking about how much pain he was going to be in after, but he could have cared less. Tanner was bouncing off the walls and being so silly.

Here Tanner is before the surgery messing around on the stool. Love his face!


Before a surgery, parents have the option of giving their child a drug called versed to help calm them down and not freak out when the time comes to leave their parents. I have heard mixed reports that this same drug contributes to their craziness while coming out of anesthesia. We gave this to Tanner when he was 18 months before his ear tube surgery and he was a crazy man after. We opted not to give it to Landen before his tonsillectomy and he was so sad before and the child life specialist actually had to gown up and take him with the surgeon. Afterwards, Landen was still a crazy man coming out of the anesthesia.

Mike and I were thinking Tanner would be ok without the Versed, but at the last minute we decided to give it to him. It is supposed to kick in quickly and kids start to relax and become loose. Not Tanner. He was still so hyper all over the waiting room. A nurse had to come over and tell us that we had to put him in the wagon since he had Versed so he wouldn't fall. Tanner kept trying to climb out of the wagon. I thought this was even more dangerous.

In the end, Tanner wheeled off in his wagon with the doctor not caring where he was going.


We were told to expect the entire surgery to take about 45 minutes. After 1 hour and 15 minutes, I was close to freaking out. Luckily the doctor walked in and told us that everything went great. It took so long because Tanner had a very large hernia.

One parent is allowed to go back into PACU. This job always falls on me and I hate it. Our kids have had a total of 5 minor surgeries up until this point and I can always hear them screaming/freaking out as I come down the hall. This time was different. I got to Tanner's bedside and he was just chillin with the nurse laying with his hands behind his head (he loves this position). The nurse said he was adorable and was telling her all about his brothers. I asked if he had cried at all and she said no he woke up and just started being a chatterbox.

The nurse asked the tech to get Tanner some apple juice. Tanner shouted across the room, "Can I get an orange sippy cup?" I couldn't believe Tanner remembered.

Love this fake smile. Tanner is trying, but his stomach is a little upset.

We were moved into the postop area to monitor Tanner a little longer when he puked all his apple juice. Poor guy. After his stomach settled, the nurse asked him if he would like some crackers. Only Tanner would reply, "Is that all you got?"

I started telling Tanner about how we were going to snuggle and watch movies all day. The nurse asked him what we were going to watch. Tanner proudly said, "We have Netflix!" All the nurses fell in love with him.

When we got home, Tanner laid around for a few hours while we watched an entire season of an old Godzilla cartoon. By that night, Tanner was trying to wrestle his brothers.

It has been a few days and Tanner is totally fine. I think I gave him Lortab once and forced Motrin down him the rest of the time even though he probably didn't need it. So thankful to have my wild child back.