Pre-Op

We are officially in the throes of surgery.

It's uncharted for us and every bit as draining as we thought it would be.  The last 24 hours have been a blur of massive house cleaning and tears and checking my clock every hour on the dot.  Sleep has been scarce.

Last night I took Josie on a date before dropping her off at her Nana's for the first leg of her first adventure without me.  She was very nervous and couldn't even eat the huge dessert we got.  She kept assuring me she was OK, but she was wearing her emotions on her sleeve.  My girl is so, so brave.

When I got home, I couldn't sleep.

So I mopped my floors.  Then, when I still couldn't sit still, I polished them then dusted.  I finally went to bed around midnight and proceeded to wake up every 58 minutes to see how much time I had left to sleep.  It was a super fun night.

Today has been exhausting.

I mean, we knew it would be so we were prepared, but it was a ton of information.  A very long day.  Our first appointment was at 8 so we were up and out the door by 6:45.  There was a lot of people for us to meet with.  Nurses, Cardiologists, Surgeons, Fellows, Child Life Specialists.

Waiting for that many different medical professionals equates to a lot, and I mean a lot, of waiting around.  

4 hours stuck in a 10x10 room with a feisty 4 year old boy got interesting at times.  We played with everything that wasn't bolted down.  And took lots of pictures because I'm a good little blogger.

After all that waiting and question asking, we had to make the rounds to get all of his labs done.

Maybe it was the fact that he hadn't really eaten all day or maybe it was the early wake up call, but Gabe was not happy at all with the poking and prodding.  He has ECHOs done multiple times a year, he's a pro at giving blood, but today, he was just over it all.

We had to hold him down at every stop.  He screamed and I cried and we walked out of each room a little more drained then the room before.  It was exhausting and my poor boy was just so sad.

His last appointment was with the Child Life Specialist.

Can I just say that they have the best job?  She came in and within a few minutes had our very cranky boy smiling and making jokes about where the heart monitors go.  Her goal was to help make him more comfortable with all the gadgets that will be on him after surgery.  We will see how much it helps, but from his reaction, I think it was a good appointment.

When we were walking out, the Harlem Globe Trotters were in the lobby.

Of course, Gabe was an instant star with everyone.  He may be a midget, but he has some mad b ball skills.

After we left, we picked my Mom and Bill up at the airport and went out for margaritas.

I mean dinner.  We went out for dinner.

Gabe is all tucked into his bed.

I hate thinking about how he has no idea what is about to happen so I'm just not.  We tried our best to explain it to him without scaring him.  Not sure we were at all successful, but it is what it is.

So that's that.

Now I'm settling in with a glass of wine.  Planning to watch our regular shows since I'm sure there won't be much sleep tonight.  Thinking I'll skip Grey's Anatomy though.

Tomorrow is going to be awful, but we are as ready as we can be.

I'll be updating as I can throughout the day.  He is scheduled to go back at 10 AM.  The surgery will be between 5 and 8 hours not including recovery time.  It will be a very long day.

Prayer Requests:

The last thing the surgeon said at the end of our day was that there is a chance that there won't be a bed in the ICU for Gabe.  This caught us totally off guard since nobody had mentioned that all day.  We are very prepared for tomorrow to be the day.  Please pray that there will be a bed for him.  We won't know until tomorrow at 8 if he is going in or not.