The Story of How Colin Became Half the Man He Used to Be

Colin has had an outie belly button since his cord fell off at about a week old, but it is more than an outie button. The abdominal muscles never closed in around the spot where the umbilical cord entered his body, creating an umbilical hernia. The hernia wasn't painful to him, in fact we called it his "funny button" because he almost always giggled when you poked it.

Our pediatrician was optimistic that the hernia would close on its own. He said if it hadn't closed by age 5 we could have it surgically repaired. We weren't too worried about it either.  I had an umbilical hernia about the size of a quarter just two years earlier when I was pregnant with Mason. (The dialogue with strangers for the last three months of my pregnancy usually went like this: "Oh, look at your cute belly button! It's popped out." "No actually, those are my intestines.")  The repair was done and I now sport a $900 piece of gold-plated mesh behind my belly button.

I digress. Colin's belly button was just part of who he was. When he was a toddler it was common to see it poking out above his diaper and making a showing if he was wearing a shirt that was too short. Often when I would change him in front of others they would draw breath in alarm. "What is that?!?" When he was little the protrusion was almost as long as his boy part, so in jest I would reply, "He is just twice the man of any other boy."

As time progressed the hernia did not close and since we had meet our $5,000 deductible for the year (Thank you IMC NICU!) we went in for a surgical consult. Doctor Black agreed to perform the surgery to close the hernia and remove the extra skin. We were scheduled to come in the following morning, November 27th.

Colin and I got up bright and early...took some photos (good thing, because I cannot find any other pics of his hernia)...and headed to the Riverton Primary Children's Outpatient Medical Center.

Those children's doctors sure know how to distract hungry children! There were toys everywhere. He played with trains and they we went back to get prepped. He played with the toy on the wall and was thrilled with the yellow socks.

We went to the pre-op area and played some more until he was driven away by the anesthesiologist in a plastic wagon.

As I waited for the next 45 minutes I was filled with gratitude over the health of my children. We have had some broken bones (Kate...twice) and some stitches (Kate, again....and then Mason) and that brief deductible maxing NICU stay, but this was the first time I was bringing one of my children to the hospital for surgery. We weren't dealing with heart disease or cancer or any other chronic or life threatening illness. My heart was sad for those families that must feel like they live in the hospital.

Before too long I was brought back into post-op to comfort my waking kiddo.   It took some time to get his pain under control, but I suspect the complaints that his belly hurt had a lot more to do with his empty stomach then his incisions.  He downed several cups of apple juice (Have I mentioned before that he practically lives on apple juice?) and a few crackers. We had to take it slow so he wouldn't eat too much and throw up.

"Hi Dad!" We sent home a pic so Dad would know he was awake.

When it was finally time to go the nurse asked Colin if he would like a prize. He said, "No! I want somfing a eat!" He begrudgingly claimed a small car. I pulled him by wagon out to the truck and we headed home.

He took it easy that day and by the following morning was romping around as if nothing had happened. He had to wear his bandage for a week.

When I finally removed it and showed him his new belly button he burst into tears and cried, "I want my belly button back!"

And that is how Colin became half the man he used to be.