Little boy. He's having surgery today.

[Mike Buckley]

Last week my nephew celebrated his fourth birthday. Today he will have surgery that deals with his adenoids, tonsils and ears. Despite his age, he has not yet learned to eat or respond that way on his own to hunger; he has to be fed through a tube. It's possible that the reason he has never learned to eat is related to pain in his throat and ears when he would be swallowing and that resolving those issues will lead to him learning how to eat.

I woke up this morning thinking about him and his surgery. So I converted this image to black-and-white taken last week at his birthday party. You would never know from his demeanor that he has a problem in the world and that's what I like best about him!

[jiro]

Hoping that the surgery would ameliorate his situation. Looks like a brave little kid.

[rpcrowe]

My best wishes for a successful surgery. We often don't realize how lucky we are to be able to accomplish seemingly normal activities such as swallowing food...

BTW: I kind of like the image better with the round thingy cropped off the bottom...

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks, guys!

Thanks also Richard for mentioning the round thing. I had never been bothered by it because it is out of focus but now that you mention it, I agree with you. I like having a little space below his arms, so I think I'll try getting rid of it at least partially by cloning other less distracting parts of the foreground.

[SpiderBob]

Best wishes for a speedy recovery and a beautiful future.

[Mike Buckley]

He had surgery during the day and returned home that night. His father called me to say that I would never have known that he had had surgery that day except for the temporary color of his ears. As we spoke, I heard my nephew giggling with his little sister in the background.

Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts!

[Loose Canon]

Hi Mike!

I’m sorry I missed this. I’ve been out-of-pocket lately!

I hope Nephew is getting along well after the surgery.

This one kind of tugged at my Heartstrings.

Great shot of a very happy looking young man.

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks so much for the nice thoughts, Terry.

My nephew hasn't missed a beat since having the surgery last week. In fact, on Monday he begins what I'm affectionately calling Eating Camp, where we hope the doctors teach him how to eat. He was born prematurely, required a feeding tube, and at four years old has never been weened from it. The current stuff going on is a piece of cake compared to the first four months of his life, when he had benchmark after benchmark that he had to successfully meet just to stay alive.