Green light

Well, we have the green light for surgery on Monday. We went down to Children's Hospital today for Gabby's pre-op appointment. We went to Day Surgery and met with a nurse who weighed her and took all her vitals. She went over the anesthesia info and what to expect on Monday morning. She gave us info on when Gabby can last eat and drink clear liquids. We are supposed to be there for 7:30 with a surgery time of 8:30. She said to expect the surgery to last at least 6 hours from the time she leaves us and that it will take about an hour once surgery is over for her to be in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. That is when we can finally see her. It is going to be a very, very, long day. We then had to go see Dr. Jensen's PA, Maria, to have Gabby's ears checked out. There is still fluid in one ear, and the other looks ok. She said that she will be on antibiotics when surgery starts and for quite a few days after surgery, so hopefully the ear will continue to get better. While we were seeing Maria, Dr. Jensen stopped in. He seems to be so genuinely nice. It is quite comforting. Anyway, he said that in the past month or so, some of these surgeries have had to be canceled and rescheduled due to there being no beds in the PICU. AHHH... What I thought?! We waited this long, and I have worried and obsessed about just about every reason why the surgery could not go on, but this was not one of those worries. I never thought of this. Add another thing to the list of concerns! I guess that since this is surgery is not as critical as say a heart problem, or an accident or something, that is gets pushed down the list. This of course makes perfect sense, I just didn't think of it. So, now we need to pray extra hard that everyone stays safe and healthy this weekend and does not need the Intensive Care Unit at Children's (which of course we would be praying for anyway!!). If this were to happen, we would not find out until Monday morning. Man, that would suck. All this waiting and anticipation, getting through that last night thinking that in the morning I am going to hand over my baby for this- and then they send us home?!! Gurr.... Ok, I will have positive thoughts from now on.



Anyway, I have to say I have one brave baby on my hands. Gabby had to have blood drawn for all the pre surgery stuff (ok, like 4 test tubes full!) She sat on my lap and had her arm out. She was trying to grab everything and sucking her nook just fine. I thought, ok, here it comes (the screaming) and then they put the needle in and she is just like- la dee da is that daddy over there making funny faces? Oh, that is funny. Yes, she pulled out laughter when she was having the blood drawn. It took like 5 minutes and she did cry at all! Relief! She has to wear a hospital bracelet on each ankle until Monday. They cannot come off or get lost or she has to be poked and get blood drawn again. I guess these link her to her blood and the transfusion blood. Hopefully Alex will leave them alone! Speaking of Alex.... Take a look at what he colored yesterday---

Yes, he colored his baby sister. I was literally sitting 1 foot away from them too- with my back turned of course. I think Gabby thought it was funny. I actually didn't notice Gabby at first- I just saw that he had colored on her excersaucer and he had to go to time out. I return to Gabby to find her smiling away at me with pen all over her head!! Luckily he avoided her eyes and it came right off with a warm wash cloth.

Tomorrow we are off to the pediatric opthamologist so wish us luck!