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Every prayer request I posted yesterday was answered: God is good! But here's the thing about faith ... even if something had happened to Luke yesterday, God would still be God and He would still be good.

We checked in to the hospital at 6:30 am (thank you, Mom, for coming to our house so early to watch Laney!) and got Luke back in to the pre-op room. He was a trouper being woken up and the biggest hurdle of the morning was getting him into his hospital gown. After we jumped that hurdle, he was so cooperative with the nurse, jumping on the scale, giving her his arm for blood pressure, etc. Around 7:15 am, the cardiac anesthesiologist came in to chat with us and order up a good ol' dose of Versed. Soon after, Dr. Beck stopped in to go over the plan again and have us sign the consent forms. Luke was content watching Sesame Street on Dad's lap.

We had another little hurdle convincing Luke to open his mouth for the Versed ... he remembered the taste from last summer. Thankfully, only a little came back out and within 10 minutes Mr. Luke was silly boy (check out the video at the bottom of the post). Dr. Beck's nurse came in shortly after that to take Luke back on a "dinosaur hunt". Even though he was willing to go with the nurse, he was still cognizant enough to yell out down the hall at us, "Where are you guys gonna be? When will I see you?" I honestly cannot imagine that part of the day without Versed. I don't think I could do it.

The entire procedure took about an hour and by 9:15 we were back with Luke in the post-op room. Dr. Beck reported that Luke did fantastic and he was able to get everything done. He did end up having to pull that first molar on the bottom left and put a metal spacer in to save that space for his permanent tooth. He also put a crown on the lower right molar and put sealants on the rest of the molars. He mentioned another factor that I wanted to pass on to other heart families. He said he sees a lot of kids like Luke who need Pediasure come in with cavities. Luke was on Pediasure from ages 1 to 4. Just another possible factor and an encouragement for parents with younger heart kids to start seeing a dentist as young as possible! Dr. Beck is hopeful that we will just need bi-annual cleanings from here on out.

When we got to Luke, Dr. Lord (the anesthesiologist!) was holding him in a chair wearing a pink pull-up (Luke, not Dr. Lord). Luke was so ticked and had had an accident. So while Nurse George was changing the bed, Dr. Lord was holding Luke until we got there. There is not much more in life that I'm thankful for than good nurses and doctors. George told us first thing, "Your son was NOT happy with me for putting a pink pull-up on him, but it was all I had!" Later in the day, when his I.V. was taken out and we were getting close to discharge, Luke asked, "Can I take these pink underwear off now?" We had forgotten about them, but he hadn't!

God definitely answered our prayer to help Luke come out of anesthesia easier than in the past. Instead of 2 hours of misery, moaning and crying, it was only about 40 minutes yesterday. Once he was able to say his tummy was hurting, we got Zofran in him and he settled down almost immediately. Watching your child come out of anesthesia is just plain awful. I'm sure some kids come out easier than Luke, but watching him so agitated and uncomfortable and not-himself is hard. After the Zofran, Luke watched some Phineas and Ferb in my mom's lap while I nursed Laney before I burst. From that point on, it was just a matter of making sure Luke was eating and drinking, and that he wasn't in any more pain. By noon, the I.V. was out, the pink underwear were off and we were signing discharge papers. By 1 pm, we were at Target picking out a new dinosaur. Thank you Lord!

At Target, we also picked up pudding, ice cream, Jell-o and Motrin.

As of this morning, Luke is playing cars and not even needing the Motrin. We are so incredibly thankful yesterday went so well and so thankful for your thoughts and prayers. We are continually overwhelmed by people's thoughtfulness and care for our family.

We will follow-up with Dr. Beck in six weeks. In the meantime, we'll be brushin' and flossin' fools!