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health & happiness

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

We had quite an experience today, this little family. We took Ken in for his scheduled check-up, and the doctor decided that surgery was going to be the best option. It's scheduled for the third week of April, though we don't yet have a date.

The decision came because we're still pushing the herniated bits back into the boy on a daily basis, frequently five or more times a day. And it's been getting harder to do so, with the hernia resisting and itself becoming a hardened lump.

I'd helped Mari take the baby to the hospital (itself quite a chore given that it was rush hour on the Yamanote loop) but had to go to work for noon. As has been the recent habit, I was intensely busy at the office, and wasn't able to read an email that came from Mari for a couple of hours after it arrived.

When I did, my heart sank. It was a chilling depiction of the ordeal that Ken was put through after I'd left. The blood work, the x-ray .. maybe it was just Mari's description, but I was left wondering how an eight-week-old survive it all without permanent trauma. Here's what she said:

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The check up finished around 1:00. He took an electrocardiogram, X-ray and blood test. I couldn't stand looking at our poor little boy...

His body was stabilized in some kind of retainer while he was in the X-ray. They tied down his arms and legs, and his head was held still with some padding.

And he was screaming when he took a blood test. (he didn't cry. I think he was complaining.)

I couldn't be with him at either time. I had to wait at the hallway. I was close to tears at the time...

But he was very good boy. I gave him a big hug after that.

Please give him a big hug from you, tonight. :)

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I gave him a hug, to be sure. Really wonder why on Earth I felt I had to go to the office.