Just A Trim Please

For those who adopt boys from Russia, sooner or later comes the time for a big decision - circumcision. For a variety or reasons, DW and I decided to get Ashton Beau circumcised. Nevertheless, it was a tough decision. Because he’s almost 18 months old, he had to go to a pediatric urologist and have an operation under general anesthetic. As you’d expect, DW and I were very anxious about the surgery. A week ago we took him to the Children’s Memorial Hospital in Westchester, Illinois for the operation.

It started out tough. Ashton Beau could not eat before his operation, so his surgery was scheduled for 6:15 AM. We had to wake him up early. Usually he's up before us, and he was none too pleased having his slumber disturbed.

We went to the clinic, checked-in and waited in the waiting area for 20-30 minutes. A nurse then came in an led us to a prep room. Once there we set Ashton Beau in a hospital crib and changed him out of his blanket sleeper into a pediatric hospital gown. He liked the rails taht came up on the side of the crib - crusing around on them, shaking them, etc.

The anesthesiologist came in to brief DW and me on how the would prepare Ashton Beau for surgery and put him under, how long he would be under, and how long it would take him to revive as well as some longer lasting anesthetic he would get that would help minimize pain after he woke up and we started for home.

Then the pediatric urologist, Dr. Cheng, came in and told us how he wold operate and how to care for Ashton Beau afterwards.

Not long after the nurses came fo Ashton Beau to take him to the operating room. DW and I retired to the waiting area. DW went to get some coffee from a Starbucks nearby and I worked via my Blackberry. DW was back in 15 minutes and in another 20-30 minutes Dr. Cheng appeared to tell us everything went well and that Ashton Beau would soon be awake. About ten minutes later we went back to the recover room where Ashton Beau was already awake.

He had an IV connected to his foot and was pretty crabby when we first arrived. DW picked him up and held on to him for a good long while. After about 15 minutes we left the recovery room and went back to the prep room. After about ten more minutes, Ashton Beau recovered to something approaching his usual self. He drank apple jucie (cut with water) from his sippee cup and was back to playing with the enclosure on the hospital crib. I handed him a plastic resperator mask that he liked playing with too. In 30-40 minutes we had a prescription for children's Tylenol with codine and were on our way to Walgreens and then home.

Ashton Beau recovered much faster than I expected, probably faster than DW and me, and is doing very well now. Changing diapers was more difficult than usual as was applying antibiotic ointment to his incision. One thing that made that easier was some spray-on antibiotic that’s combined with a mild topical anesthetic.

Call us macbre, but the evening before Ashton Beau's operation we combined watching the White Sox sweep the Astros in the World Series with a little bon voyage foreskin party. Here he is with the party's cupcake.

Hey Mom, I'll hold the door for you.



At least they had lots of good toys in the waiting area.





You look way too happy for a place like this this early in the morning.



Yeah, I'd look concerned too.

Shortly after the successful operation, Ashton Beauregard's spokesman released the folowing statement to the media: "I'm fine. Contrary to what many of you may think, the part that sucked the most was wearing that gown. It made me look like a girl. I couldn't wait to get out of that and back into my onsie and blanket-sleeper."

Ashton Beau shows Nungesser his stoic resolve.



DW says goodbye before Ashton Beau goes to the operating room.


Within less than an hour after emerging from the operating room, Ashton Beau is nearly back to his old self. And doing his best "Attica" on the crib rails with his new toy - the respirator mask.




And soon we returned home and the smile was restored to Ashton Beau's face.