Surgery!

    Well Tuesday was the day that we have been looking forward to pretty much since our first appointment at Sick Kids. The last six months have been challenging...beautiful, but very challenging. The days leading up to the surgery were torture. It was really all that we could think about for the last seven days.

    Once the day of her surgery finally arrived, we still had lots of waiting in store for us.  One of the longest parts of the day was our time spent in the pre-op waiting room. We arrived there around 12:30pm, 2 hours before her scheduled surgery and 2.5 hours since her last feed.  Over the next two hours, we waited and saw a nurse, her surgeon and her anesthesiologist. As instructed by the pre-op nurse, we changed Lucille into a pretty adorable hospital gown (note the ginormous slippers!). With each passing minute, Lucille grew hungrier and therefore crankier - and our anxiety grew. We spent most of this time pacing whilst bouncing Lucille to keep her happy. Even though she was hungry and on the verge of losing it, Lucille was still smiling and was most happy looking at the faces around the the waiting room. She spread a lot of cheer to a lot of the parents and older children who were also nervously awaiting surgery.



















    At 2:20 a nurse came to see us and introduced herself as one of the nurses that would be in the operating room with Lucille. After some more questions about Lucille's medical history she asked if we had any more questions for her-we didn't-then she said "Ok, I'll let you guys give kisses and hugs and then I'll take her" What?! It was very abrupt and we weren't expecting to say goodbye yet. This was not easy to do. I held Lucille- kissed her head and - whispered for her to be brave and of course told her that I loved her and did my best to fight back the tears. Once we walked out of the waiting room, Esther and I stood together holding one another's hand in the hallway in silence. We regrouped and made our way to the NEXT waiting room.

It was amazing how the anxiety left us so quickly after handing her over. We had nothing but the utmost confidence in Dr. Fisher and knew that he would take care of our girl. Esther's first priority was to pump so we were able to make our way up to our room where we would spend the night so that she could pump milk for when Lucille came out of surgery. The people on the 8th floor (not surprisingly) were so supportive and helpful. Esther was relieved to have the pumping situation sorted out as it was one of the only things that was not clearly communicated to us about the process. Once Esther finished pumping, we decided to go out for lunch to help pass more time. It felt so odd for us to be together without any kids to look after.  We finally ended up going back upstairs to the waiting room where we would stay until Dr. Fisher came to see us at the end of the surgery. Even though the surgery was over, we couldn't go in to see Lucille until she woke up.  So, we did our best to settle into what were quite possibly the most uncomfortable chairs known to mankind to wait out the remainder of the time.

When the time finally came for us to see Lucille we walked around the corner and it was like seeing our daughter for the first time all over again.  It was such an absolutely beautiful moment for both of us. It was hard to see at times as we were both quite misty eyed. We were released from pre-op and went up to 8C where the post surgery patients stay. The nurses (as usual) were absolutely incredible. Esther kept on calling it the hotel accidentally because it really did feel like we were in a hotel instead of a hospital. 

The first night was a bit bumpy as Lucille was in a good amount of pain and needed her vitals checked and painkillers administered on a regular basis. She was also not taking full feeds so was taking smaller amounts of milk more frequently. We didn't sleep well but that was to be expected. The next day we were greeted by the awesome news that we would be discharged at 12 o'clock. Less than 24 hours in the hospital was an absolute joy for us to hear. 

You can see in the pictures that Lucille is wearing her "no-no's". These are the sleeves I referred to in a previous post that keep her from touching her stitches/touching her nose. 

    Since it's taken us so long to actually write this blog post we've actually been back to Sick Kids to have her stitches taken out. Lucille had to go under general anesthetic again for this procedure, but it was incredibly quick and straightforward and we were out of the hospital within hours.  And very happy to have her nasal stent out!

    It's amazing how quickly babies heal and how strong and resilient they are. Our next appointment will be in two weeks when we go back to Sick Kids and learn to massage Lucille's lip to break down the scar tissue. Should be fun times!

    Thank you to all of you for your positive vibes and thoughts as we went through this. We really appreciate it and felt all the love from each and everyone of you.