And here is Chloe "post surgery" - with poor little red marks on her face - but happily saying "Cheese" for the camera while she chomps on grapes! (You'll hear about the pliers below!)
We arrived at the hospital around 7:15 a.m. and Chloe was admitted into the Pre-Op area... I was so impressed with the hospital - everything was very well organized & the staff was very helpful & nice. So there were about 15 rooms in the Pre-Op area, and there were other little children there, too... One Mom was giving her kid a ride in a red wagon, round & around the nurses' station when we arrived. It was such a different experience - to see all these little children in hospital attire. Though adults wear nice gowns showing your entire backside (ugh!) children are given blue, yellow or green, fleece-like short sleeve shirts and pants and then little booties/socks to wear.. and they all look so adorable, and yet none of them have a clue what's about to happen to them, so you just feel bad! We got situated in our little room around 7:45 and was told the Dr. would probably come in around 9 to talk with us and then get started. AH! What a long time to make a child wait! And of course we didn't know what to expect, so we bought NOTHING for Chloe to play with! We were blessed with a really awesome nurse, though, who got crayons, stickers & coloring pages for Chloe... And she also brought in the mask that Chloe would have to wear that would put her to sleep, so Chloe could play with it and it smelled like bubble gum, so when I wasn't looking, she stuck her tongue out and almost licked it! haha.. Anyway, they don't do anesthesia in an IV for children, which I didn't realize! So this tiny little gas mask was going to be placed on her and she would fall asleep within seconds, I think it was. But at some point, they would give her an IV - I guess just to keep fluids in her body? I don't know. Anyway, our wait went super fast - which was good - we walked to the other end of the Pre-Op area where there was a little room with a TV and VCR and tons of children's video's. Chloe just held her puppy Molly and sat on my lap while we watched Winnie the Pooh for an hour! YEA for passing the time fast! And Daddy also took her on a little ride around the nurses' station in the red wagon, and before we knew it, our Dr. was ready to talk to us and get the surgery started. It freaked me out when he said Chloe "might puke a little blood later" - Ah! -but told us not to worry if she does. So anyway, a few seconds later a nurse from surgery comes, all dressed from head to toe in green scrubs - even her head covered, which I thought might scare Chloe... but amazingly, we handed her to this Nurse, who held her and her puppy dog, and then we kissed Chloe and said "bye" and off they went, the Nurse carrying her down the hall toward surgery. So yeah, she didn't even make a fuss or cry - it was stunning! But it would've been MUCH harder for us had she gotten upset, so I suppose this was good! Then we went out to the waiting room and waited... This was around 9:10. So I waited while Chris went down to the first floor which held the cafeteria & a McDonald's and he got his much needed iced coffee he can't live without in the summertime. It seemed he was gone an eternity, because before he even came back, the doctor and nurse - complete in their operating scrubs - came up to me and started to tell me how everything went.. It was over - just a mere 25 minutes later! I was mad that Chris was not there to hear everything! So the Dr. gave me a set of 4 pictures which he took of her insides - and he said her intestine looked wonderful (and he said things like "it had nice folds," whatever that means!) And he said there was NO evidence of disease in her intestine (praise Jesus!) which is a very good sign.. but we will be sure when the results come back. However, he did notice some signs of a hiatal hernia (go here for more info: http://www.medicinenet.com/hiatal_hernia/article.htm) which she may not have any symptoms of, or it may not bother her really... But he also took a sample of this part of her esophagus to have tests run on it, as well. So anyway, that was all rather good news. After a while longer, we finally got to go back to the special post-anesthesia care unit for children, where Chloe was being monitored by a nurse. She was sitting up in this crib type thing that looked like a cage and she was holding her puppy & she looked TERRIBLE! Her little face had red splotches all over it - I guess from tape that held the mask on her face. Poor girl! And she had tons of wires coming out of her - 3 little circle patches on her chest, monitoring her breathing - and an IV with bunches of cords coming out of her little hand - and then a little wire with sticky tape around it, glowing red, attached to her finger, which monitored her heart rate. They said I could pick her up, and she wanted me to, but I was nervous with all these things coming out of her! They had a glider rocker and I sat down and held her and she started to cry & make noises - and her breathing sound REALLY raspy & awful and so she about choked as she began to cry and I was SO nervous. This was truly the worse part! They got her a sippy cup with juice and we got her to drink a little.. and she was just really mad about all the stuff attached to her... but mainly the painless little glowing red dot which was stuck to her finger! She started to play with it & yanked it off in a hurry, so the Nurse came in and put it on her toe instead. Luckily, she didn't yank at the IV! We had to sit there with her for an hour & a half! Just because she had a breathing tube, so they wanted to watch her breathing for that length of time to be sure she'd be okay. The nurse brought in a big plastic bin full of toys that Chloe could choose one of to take home! That was fun... and of ALL the girlie things - princess nail polish and hair bows & barrettes - Chloe picked out a set of plastic pliers! haha. There was also a hammer, too, and she wanted them both! The handles of the pliers, though, come off and they are screwdrivers, so Mommy & Daddy went to work 'fixing' everything in our little recovery area - the bed, the wheels, you name it - to take up time & keep Chloe occupied! Then the nurse brought Chloe a red popsicle - That saved the day! I told Chloe "Look! The ice cream man came!" and she was happy and had 2 popsicles, and almost a third, but by then it was time to get dressed & come home! And by then she was doing MUCH better and even saying "beep" along with the monitoring machines in the room. hehe.. She was back to her cute self...
So anyhow, we stopped at McDonald's on the way home and got me some lunch, and bought a cheeseburger for Chloe, not sure if she'd eat it - but sure enough - we got home and she was happy & full of energy and almost ate half of it! She never got sick at all, or complained of pain, or was whiny or cranky (Amen!) And from it all, we now get to enjoy fixing things in our house with Chloe's new pliers! hehe.
So I'm glad it's over with, and in 5 to 7 days we shall hear the results... And we'll surely let you know! Now, I need to get back to work - I have so much stuff to do!
1 comment:
I'm so glad to hear that everything went along smoothly. You were all in my thoughts yesterday. I'll pray for positive results. <3<3
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