Ben’s surgery went well. We left the hotel and took a taxi to the hospital at 6:00 this morning. Our surgery was at Montreal Children’s (MCH). We didn’t get to see our lovely Dr. Pablo as he was away, but the anesthesiologist we had was great – he had worked with Ben before. We met with our surgeon, Dr. Ouellet, early this morning and we talked about his plan A, plan B, and plan C (and mystery plan). The more we get to know him, the more confident I am blindly trusting him. I understand that he doesn’t necessarily know what he will come across during surgery. The connection piece between family and doctor is so critical in pediatric care, and we are so grateful to have him on our team!!! As this is our fifth surgery here, the faces here at MCH are getting familiar too, and Ben has a reputation for being a sweet child.

Ben was only in surgery for 2 1/2 hours, which could be our shortest one yet. They opened him up about 6 inches and were able to bend the rod back so it is once again flush with the spine. They mentioned that it would have come out of his spine within the next few days, so our timing was perfect! When I was washing his back last night and this morning, I could feel how close the rod was to coming out, which gave me the non-medical heebeegeebies! Once again…sober for these special moments. The restaurant at the hotel was closed, so wine was not an option.

Ben’s recovery so far has been impressive, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see us home by this weekend! He’s already been out of bed and walked himself to the bathroom! As their Covid numbers are rising here again, I will be ok getting out of here sooner rather than later!

It looks like we will be in the recovery room for quite some time – probably overnight. From a mom’s point-of-view, this is hard time – my least favourite option, but people have moved worlds to get us here today, so we will be patient and get what we get and not get upset! I’ll keep my fingers crossed that something opens up tonight!

Being solo here means I have limited pics to tell our story. Jesse is better at clicking photos than me. My girlfriend, Kristy Wolfe, is a story-telling photographer that specializes in telling families in-hospital stories through photos. It’s so important because these are such significant life stories – the chance to document these stories is priceless! We always want to have an opportunity for her to tell our hospital story, but it hasn’t worked out yet. Kristy has also done a tonne of work for Ronald McDonald House and has done end-of-life work as well, which is traumatic, yet incredibly important and meaningful. Her son Kane is also a crooked-necker, so our meeting each other seemed destined from the start! We met while both volunteering for the Stollery Children’s Hospital, and have been good friends since. Here is her blog with some of my FAVOURITE photos of my own kids (she also does regular photo shoots)!!! I hope you love them as much as I do!!!She’s the most amazing photographer I know! https://kristywolfephotography.com/2015/09/23/frog-hunt/

Thanks for all your support and kind words! We feel so lucky to have such a great community of support behind us!