Anna update from The Hospital "Hotel"

I'm happy to report that Anna is out of surgery and is resting in Daddy's arms. She's crying right now though. The poor thing has been through so much today.

I had actually thought about bringing the camera this morning to document the day but thought that Rich would think that was freakish. I thought that it was a little freakish. She looked so cute in her baby hospital garb. I told the nurse how I had thought about bringing the camera and she told me that a lot of people do so I guess it isn't that freakish.

I did take this picture with my phone (which explains the poor quality) of her playing in the waiting room in her baby hospital outfit.



Today was VERY stressful for me and Rich. Anna's surgery was scheduled for noon. They didn't take her into the operating room until 2:00. After discussions with another family in the waiting room, we learned that the surgery scheduled before Anna's was running over. Big time.

If your child has never had to have surgery, consider yourself lucky. We carried her into the operating room and watched them put the gas mask on her. She was crying hysterically and then she fell asleep but she was hyperventilating. I said, "She's hyperventilating." The anesthesiologist told me that that was normal. It broke my heart to leave her like that.

The nurse told us that the surgery should take about an hour. They gave us this pager and told us that they would send us updates telling us that she's okay or if we need to return to the waiting room, etc. The parents for the little boy having surgery before Anna received NO updates. We received NO updates. An hour and 15 minutes after we left her in the OR, a nurse came by and told us that it would be another 40 minutes and that the doctor would come see us there before someone brought us to see Anna in Recovery.

Forty minutes turned into over an hour. I was trying not to panic at this point. I was extremely nervous that the end of her shunt had become part of the hernia problem. The doctor performing this surgery was her urologist. He told us that sometimes he finds the end of the shunt (the part that drains into the abdominal cavity) in the hernia area and that it must be fixed by the neurosurgeon.

Imagine this scene. Rich and I are the only ones in the pediatric waiting room. There's a little room with a table and chairs off of the waiting room. No one has told us that Anna is out of surgery. The doctor walks in, doesn't say a word and motions for us to follow him into the little room. My heart almost stopped. But she is fine and was fine during surgery.

The doctor repaired the hernia on her right side and found a small one on her left side, which he repaired as well. She ate some Cheerios in Recovery and Rich and I managed to feed her some french fries and apple juice for dinner. She is just exhausted and in some pain.

We are sharing a room right now with a little boy undergoing chemo. They have the television blasting. I do feel grateful that my little girl will be going home tomorrow without any major problems (hopefully) so I can't complain.

Signing off for now. Rich and I supposed to share a twin size cot. This should be interesting.