The anticipated day of Jordan’s surgery finally came. Randy and I could only pray that God would help lessen our anxiety as we entered the world of a major surgery followed by an intense recovery.
To help prepare for Jordan’s surgery we decided to take a family trip to Doctor’s house to “play doctor.” We took the pre-surgery tour at Akron Children’s Hospital to see the pre-op, operating room and recovery room. 
We’ve been down the surgery road, but this time it wasn’t an emergency and we wanted to try to hide surprises from Jordan.
We took his monkey, Nick, with us so Jordan could show him where they would be going while they were away from mom and dad. Brittany, the child life specialist, was so sweet to give Nick a hat and mask. I think Randy and I were more nervous standing in the operating room and recovery area.
Randy has expressed how hard it was after Jordan’s initial surgery and the anxiety that overcomes him when we walk through the recovery area.
A few days after the pre-surgery tour, Jordan asked to go back to Doctor’s House to play doctor with Brittany, “that girl I got my picture with.”
The weekend before his big surgery, we took advantage of our family time. Jordan’s requested we go to Chick Fila because he loves to pay in the race car play area.
Surgery day
The morning of the surgery we woke up bright and early so we could enjoy our dance party as a family in our kitchen. We then ventured over to let Mater, the town tow truck, know that Jordan wouldn’t be around for a couple of days.
Jordan with child life specialist Brittany.
Jordan told him “Mater, I have go to Doctor’s house to have my surgery.”
We’re so thankful Jordan was willing to participate in the pre-op testing and getting blood drawn. Brittany came in to see him to ease his mind. Nick did well, too, as he ventured back with Jordan and Brittany to the surgery area.
We found out before going back that Dr. Jones was going to start on Jordan’s right ankle for the tendon lengthening then begin working on his left ankle tendon transfer and lengthening, while Dr. Adamcyzk performed his hip surgery.
Jordan transferred with ease. When Dr. Jones came out to the waiting area, he said Jordan told him he looked like a snow man and wanted to know what the mask was doing pinching his nose. Then Dr. Jones asked Jordan if he wanted to lie down, and Jordan said, “No.”
It was such a relief having Dr. Jones in there initially because of his relationship with Jordan. We were encouraged to hear him say that everything went well for the ankle surgery.
We then had to wait a couple more hours to hear from Dr. Adamcyzk on news about the hip.
As we waited in the conference room, Randy and I could only pray for great results without complications with blood loss because of how many times we were informed of the possibility of a blood transfusion during surgery. Thankfully everything went without a snag.
Dr. Adamcyzk let us know everything went great. Jordan didn’t have significant blood loss and the surgery needed to be done.
During the restless nights prior to surgery, I wondered if we had made the right decision. But he told us the hip would have probably dislocated within 6 months. We were also pleasantly surprised to see Dr. Adamcyzk had met Jordan’s request for a green and blue cast.
Jordan did well in recovery. I was so nervous he would be scared to wake up to being confined to a hip spica cast to his toes, but it didn’t seem to bother him. He just wanted to be in the company of his mommy and daddy.
As we were being transferred up to his room, we got to say hello to Dr. Chen and Jenna from neurosurgery.
We are so blessed to have such a great team. We are always overwhelmed by the support we have from doctors, nurses, friends and family. We had people from all over the world calling to see how Jordan’s surgery went and they continue to show love and support throughout our journey.
