Here’s how yesterday played out since my last post:

• 9:30 a.m. — Our pastor, associate pastor and youth pastor stopped by the hospital to lend Stephen and me moral support during the long and trying wait in surgical services. Joe, Larry and Todd stayed with us till we got the good news from Dr. Petty hours later. What a blessing they were, helping to ease our worried minds and distract our tired brains and bodies from the stress at hand.  
• 10:30 a.m. — Nurse Kathy called with the next update, saying that everything was going fine, but offered no details.
• 12:15 p.m. — Kathy called with another vague update. She did say, however, that the surgery took a bit longer than they had anticipated, but there was no cause for concern; the docs were simply taking their time and being thorough with every step of the intricate procedure.
• 12:45 p.m. — Kathy said that the lobectomy was done and that Dr. Petty was “closing him up.” Yay, almost done!
• 2 p.m. — We talked face-to-face with Dr. Petty. Basically, he explained that the surgery couldn’t have gone better, and that our resilient little Zeke wasn’t even on a breathing tube or a C-PAP. Thank the Lord!
• 3 p.m. — We finally got to visit Zeke one at a time in the anasthesia recovery room. They had warned that kids oftentimes look pretty frightening as a reaction to anasthesia, getting really swollen and/or red. But Zeke looked great!
• 4:30 p.m. — Zeke is moved to the intermediate recovery ward, where he has a private room. Stephen hangs out for a while and then heads home to help Granny take care of Houston and Gabriel. I am spending the night.

About an hour or so later, Zeke’s anasthesia really starts to wear off and he is administered morphine, in addition to the OR-grade pain medicine he receiving constantly via IV. I can only imagine how painful his tiny chest, lungs and right side must be. Man, I stump my toe and think the world is coming to an end. What a trooper our Z-Bird is!

Zeke is also battling a major gas bubble in his belly — a nurse show it to me on a chest x-ray and it was indeed huge — that just refuses to come up. Plus, he absolutely hates the small tube in his nose and is unable to reach his beloved thumb for sucking purposes.

Right now is a bit after 2 a.m., and Zeke is quite the restless boy, grunting, kicking and stretching his arms out while asleep, and waking up on occasion to exercise his four remaining lung lobes with some raucous screaming. Mommy and Zeke are both exhausted, but glad to be together.

Zeke has found some comfort, though, in the two bottles of Pedialyte I’ve been able to feed him. Couple that with some morphine every few hours and lots of love, gentle massages and songs from Mommy, and he’s having a darn good night considering all that he has been through in about the last 24 hours.