Sarah Rose's Surgery

Bright and early, well almost bright, we left for Seattle yesterday morning. It's about a 2 hour drive from here to Seattle Children's Hospital and our check in for pre-op was scheduled for 6:45 a.m. I arranged the day before (well, actually several weeks before, but finalized the details yesterday) to have the boys stay with our neighbor over night so that we could leave and not have to drop them off at 4 in the morning :) So yesterday around 4:20 a.m. Jason, the girls and I left for our day. The drive was uneventful, nice, though the girls didn't sleep very much. We got to the hospital at 6:25 and got them dressed in the car. Check-in was easy this time, there aren't nearly the amount of people waiting that early in the morning! And then before we knew it we were being taken back. Hallway after hallway winding this way and then when were completely lost we were given a room. A Big glass sliding door on one side, frosted glass walls on either side of us and a wall with instruments, gauges and cabinets at the back. There was a pretty inviting reclining chair in the middle of the room and a few extra chairs so we settled in and got comfortable. Next was the onslaught of anesthesiologists, doctors, nurses all with their list of questions for us. But they were all VERY nice and comforting. And then I was given my scrubs so that I could escort Sarah Rose back to the operating room and hold her while they put her to sleep. We got to go back a little after eight in the morning and I held her while they told her a little about the mask and how it was strawberry flavored, and then before I knew it she was relaxing down onto the table :( Time for Mommy to go :(. Then I just went back and waited with Daddy and big sister Charity Ann. They told us the surgery would be about 30 minutes plus about 30 minutes for her to wake up from anesthesia, so that left us with an approximate time of 9:20 ish..... I was pointed to the beverage counter where I found lots of teas, hot coffee, apple cider and cocoa. I fixed us each something warm and then looked through the snack drawers and found some cheese and crackers and grahams for Charity Ann. As you probably guessed it was no food or drinks for Sarah Rose after Dinner time, so we didn't even breach the subject while she was with us and now Charity Ann was getting hungry. So we had our coffee/cocoa/apple cider and crackers and waited. After about 30 minutes we were called on by Dr. Freidrich and were told that she did wonderfully and that we could expect her in about a half an hour or so. So we watched the little TV in our room patiently until we saw her being carried down the hall towards us :) There she was, groggy and concerned about this woman that was holding her, but otherwise our Sarah Rose.... Perfect. She was given to Mommy and that's when she started crying, I am sure that she was wondering what the heck just happen to her, why she was feeling that way, and why Mom had left her with this strange though very nice nurse. So we rocked and whispered and she calmed down and napped for a few minutes. Daddy and Charity Ann decided to go for a walk so that she could rest for a little while and he made some phone calls. I just held her and tried to keep her comfy and gave her juice and Popsicles. Every once in a while she would start crying again which they told me she was probably just reacting to the anesthetic. And then after about a half an hour we got Daddy to come back, she started smiling like her usual self and we began the check out process. Amazingly it didn't take very long and we were heading out of the hospital doors at about 10:30!! I called a few people as we were driving away and then we settled in for our ride home which both of the girls slept most of the way home! Jason had taken the whole day off so when we got home we called the neighbor, told her that the boys could come home any time and thank you very much for watching them and that we were going to all go rest and watch a movie! So that's what we did, after some lunch. I think that we made it through both Black Stallion movies before dinnertime. Since then we have just been sure to keep on top of her Tylenol w/codeine and she has been pretty much unaffected by the whole ordeal. She has to keep her bandages on for 2 days, so that means I will take them off prolly after nap (or right before) on Thursday and we are just supposed to keep band aids on for a few more days after that. She has a post-op appt. on August 12th, and after that I think that we can just put this whole thing behind us :) Really it's been pretty straight forward and to the point. I am glad that it's over and we can stop wondering about it. All we will have is a story to tell and maybe two very small incision scars. :) So, all that said, here are a few pictures from this morning so that Sarah Rose can show off her bandages :)

Sarah Rose and her bandages

Mom, this is me Smiling!

Left hand

Right Hand