The Boy With no Throat 3

A waiting room in a hospital is a Purgatory on Earth, especially when a loved one is having high risk surgery. Time creeps by inexorably slowly. The stress is almost unbearable when it's a small child.
My son, his wife,Brian and I waited and waited. Ian was having his jury rigged oesophagus attached to his sternum, to keep it firmly in place, and an assessment made, as to how the surgeons could lengthen the tube.
The oesophagus, being artificially constructed out of a piece of windpipe and I don't know what else, couldn't grow with the child . He was, I think, around five, at that time.They had to find some tissue they could use. I can't recall now, how they extended that tube, but they managed to add a small measure to the length.
The head surgeon finally appeared and seemed conservatively pleased. He said it should be okay for a couple of years. Of course he wouldn't be able to eat solids for a while and eating would continue to be painful and prospectively dangerous. The greatest danger being, the food getting stuck at the opening to the stomach. Another problem was acid reflux ,damaging the oesophagus and even his teeth.
He offered an option that would be far less painful in the long run. He could permanently implant a stomach tube directly into the stomach from the outside. Ian would be fed through the tube by a pump that he would have to be attached to, three times a day for a couple of hours at a time.
It would restrict his life quite a bit and his days would revolve around the pump. He would have to take a portable one to school. He couldn't swim or engage in body contact sports. He wouldn't be able to go camping or do a thousand other things. It would compromise the quality of his life and make him a freak at school. The upside?
He wouldn't be in pain any longer. There wouldn't be lumps of food
stuck in his throat any more, or lodged at the opening to his stomach.
They could put a balanced diet and high nutritional supplements in the pump. He would gain weight and get healthier at last. His parents had a lot of thinking to do.
They didn't take too long to decide. No pump. If life was a struggle for Ian, the rewards were worth it. He wouldn't be attached to a machine. He would be free to move around and do whatever he wanted. He wouldn't have to give up swmming,
which he loved. He could get dirty and play rough.
Life did continue to be a struggle for him. He hated eating. It hurt. He would get up from the table and walk around to try and help the food to go down. He still does that. His eyes always showed shadows of pain and acceptance.
Eventually he had to have more surgery, and an examination revealed that he had ulcers in his stomach.
He thought the increasing pain was just something he had to accept and never mentioned it.
Mum and Dad staunchly continued to refuse the stomach tube and they watched him grow up, pencil thin , and struggling with pain and constant bouts of pneumonia.
But, that kid was into every activity, every sport, boy scouts and camping. He wasn't afraid of anything. Life had already thrown everything bad at him.
He wasn't going to miss out on anything. Mum and Dad had made the right decision for the type of guy Ian was.
He became an Eagle Scout(the highest achievment in scouting). He was brilliant in school. He won math awards and science awards. It turned out that Ian is a genius. His brain functions at such a high level, that he may solve some of the most pressing problems in the world some day.
He's loving and sweet and compassionate. He's passionately devoted to saving the polar bears of Canada who are seriously endangered. He's happy.

And,when I see that pain in his eyes, and he quietly gets up and leaves the table,
I never let him see the tears in my eyes. He wouldn't understand.

( To be continued)