Carson's having surgery

I guess my kids think it is totally normal to have surgery. No big deal. Tucker has had 2 surgeries in the last year. Hallie has had 3 along with countless procedures under anesthesia. Carson wanted in on the action, so he will be having surgery on Wednesday.

On what, you ask? His nose. He was warming up for a baseball game on Saturday and the sun got in his eyes. A ball glanced off of the tip of his glove and hit him in the nose. He had a good nose bleed, but I didn't think too much about it. I ran home and grabbed a clean pair of pants and by the time I got back (5 minutes), the bleeding had stopped. He played his game, we went home, no complaints. Fast forward to Tuesday morning when I am woke up by Derrick yelling at me to get into Carson's room. I run in and find him covered in blood. It was coming out of both nostrils, all over his face, all over his bed. It was a bit alarming. We cleaned him up, put a nose ice pack our home health nurse had given us for just such an occasion on it and waited until we could call the doctor.

I called the pediatrician and they told me to take him into the bathroom and look at his nose really closely under the lights. They wanted to know if it was crooked. Sure enough, I didn't even need the light to see it. I just had to look close. It's pretty crooked. I tried to convince myself it wasn't that big of a deal, but I think deep down I knew that it was. We didn't let him play in his last baseball game. He was devastated but no more so than his coach. The coach actually offerred to go buy a mask that he could wear to protect the nose. It made Carson feel good because he is getting to be a really awesome baseball player.

So yesterday, we headed off to the ENT. Luckily, we have one here because of Tucker, so I was able to convince them to get him in ASAP. The funny thing is there is no bruising and not really any swelling, so they weren't too concerned about it. Even the nurse that took us back was a little disappointed that it wasn't worse looking and I could tell that she thought I was out of my mind for making such a big deal about getting him in that quickly. Then the doctor came in. He looked at it, shined a light up there and we were very quickly talking surgery. He says it is a lot worse on the inside than the outside. He thinks the ball hit right where the septum connects to the nasal bone. The bone got pushed one way and the septum popped off completely. Carson is having trouble breathing and it has started bleeding 2 other times. So, we get to go in and fix it.

They will go in with 2 rods, one on each side and try to manipulate the septum back into place. He says it doesn't always work and that sometimes all it does is buy him a few years before they need to open it up to fix it, but it is worth trying this less invasive way first. It is out patient surgery and he will have to wear a splint for about 2 weeks to protect his nose.

As we were walking out, Carson looked at me and asked if he was the only one in the family that hadn't had surgery yet. I think he thinks it is like a rite of passage to be a part of our family. He was actually even a little excited about it. Then reality started setting in last night and he is getting nervous. I will just be glad to get it over with. I will post pictures after then surgery because honestly, there isn't really anything to see right now.