Cecostomy Time!

Here we go again! Heading back to Iowa City for another surgery. This time Kai will be having surgery to place a cecostomy tube. They go into part of his bowel called the cecum (sp????) and connect it to the abdominal wall. He then will have a little tube put into his side that we will be able to put the enema solution in every day. This will make it so we don't have to do the whole process of putting the big catheter in his bum and all that jazz. It's quite the process and involves moving him and....well, lets just say it can and has gotten quite messy. I'll spare you the gory details (although, if you read thru some previous posts, the gory details are there! LOL!) It will make the whole process a whole lot easier and he will be able to help with the intention of doing it all by himself down the road a bit. He's really starting to want some independence in the bathroom and we are really trying to encourage it. He holds the catheter after I put it in, opens packages, throws things away, etc. The end of the cecostomy tube has a little square that will go on the outside of his body with a cover that we will be able to open, insert a special adapter, and put the saline and glycerin in via syringe. Should take a lot less prep, less supplies to order and haul when we travel, and be MUCH easier for Grandma's to handle when we have to (or get to :)) be away. The nurse practitioner we have been working said since this will clean out the entire colon instead of just the bottom part like his current enemas do, there should be a lot less chance of him leaking and we might even be able to space them out instead of having to do it every day. That will be awesome because an hour plus out of every night sometimes gets to be a little challenging. Plus, at least an hour of every night, the only toilet in the house is being used. That has presented some challenges as well! He's actually a little young for the procedure, but after talking to the surgeon and explaining that Kai already does awesome sitting for an hour+ every day and all the other things they look for maturity wise, he was all for it. Our NP was very helpful and gave his vote of confidence for Kai as well which was nice.
Tomorrow we head to Iowa City for all his pre-surgery consults and check ups. He also can have NOTHING TO EAT.....ALL. DAY. LONG. Not even breakfast. His surgery isn't until Wednesday, so basically nothing for a day and a half. He can have as much clear liquid as he wants, but absolutely nothing at all to eat. Oh my stars...I am DREADING tomorrow. I have been trying to pump it up as being so cool that he gets to have all the juice and pop he wants tomorrow, and we got popsicles, juice boxes, little bottles of water, and cool Jello sea animal molds. We have to pick up some meds and run a few other errands tomorrow, so hopefully he is distracted enough that we don't have too much trouble. We are staying in a hotel tomorrow night-with a POOL :) so he's excited about that too. He's not too keen on going to the hospital since the last time he went was when he had his kidney stone and that was none to fun to say the least! We are pretty honest with him since he's pretty quick to catch on to stuff, and that seems to help him. I told him that we would be with him as much as we possibly could and that seemed to help too. The IV will go in AFTER he's asleep with the mask, which makes Mommy's heart very relieved.
Prayers that everything will go well with the tube placement and then everything starts "working again" when the procedure is over would be much appreciated! Please pray for all of us tomorrow as we keep him from eating and that he does ok. Prayer for my mommy heart would be much appreciated as well!