Long Day

Today Brooklyn had her third surgery/procedure in 2008 at Primary Children's Medical Center. In February she got ear tubes. March she had some dental work done. Today she had a bilateral inguinal hernia repair. Every one of these procedures have taken a real toll on Brooklyn, but today we think takes the cake. We got to the hospital at 8am. She did better than ever with the before surgery stuff, ie. weight check, blood pressure, oxygen levels, heart and lungs listening to, etc. But even though she was better this time, it was still quite an ordeal. She is terrified of doctors and nurses because they just mean trouble to her. But we got through all that and we were waiting to meet with the surgeon and anesthesiologist. We were waiting with a few other kids and their parents when a nurse went over to a little guy with a syringe filled with the "good stuff" (a relaxer drug) and told the boy it's his yummy medicine and to open up. He did, she emptied the syringe and walked away, and the boy went back to playing. Then another kiddo was posing in his scrubs as his mom took pictures of him to document his surgery experience. Steve and I looked at each other and started laughing at both of these instances because that is just so not how it is with Brooklyn. When the nurse came with the "good stuff" for her we went into another room, shut the door, Steve held her limbs while the nurse squirted it up her nose. That way she couldn't throw it up. And I wanted to take pictures of the bean, but I knew that would be adding fuel to her fire.

We walked with her as far as they'd let us, then I handed her over to one of the doctors. She was so relaxed that she went willingly and even waved to Steve and I as they took her down the hall. I just had to laugh again because if she would have been all there the farewell would have been a lot different. The surgery was very quick and very successful. Afterwards the doctor said "she had a couple of good sized hernias for such a little squirt." Again we smiled. Yes, she is a little squirt.

Then came the really fun part...waking up from anesthesia. It wasn't pretty. She was super nauseated. When I got there to see her she calmed down when I got her in my arms. That was good. But then came a lot of vomiting. All over my shirt, some went down my shirt, and of course all over her. And she didn't even have anything in her stomach to get rid of. They gave her more anti-nausea medicine which made her very sleepy. She slept a lot but would wake up every 20 minutes or so to vomit some more. Poor girl, she's so thin already. We went through this cycle for a few hours. You know the Friends episode where Ross and Rachel are in the hospital getting ready to have their baby and all her roommates come and deliver their babies and Rachel is still only dilated to a 2. Well that was us today. Everyone came and went and we were still there trying to get Brooklyn to first want to eat, second eat, and third keep it down. That happened around 3:00pm, then we finally left that hospital at 4:00pm. That's right, it was an eight hour ordeal.

All the while my wonderful mother-in-law was at our home with London. Miss London wasn't taking a bottle, which we knew the day before, but we still left her because we knew what a hard day it was going to be. I fed her well before we left, then mom had bottles to try to feed her and if that didn't work she would try rice cereal (which we only started with her this week). London didn't take a bottle at all for mom, so she stuffed her full of the rice cereal and they got a long just fine. London has enough chub to spare, so we knew she'd survive. I was worried about her of course, but the day was so crazy with Brooklyn that I really didn't have much time to dwell on any other worries. When we got home London gave me some big smiles, then she chugged some milk with no problems. Tonight when I was nursing her to sleep she hung on extra long. Usually she falls asleep and I put her right down. Tonight she stayed latched on and awake for a while. I so wanted to put her down and go shower off the yuckiness of the day, but I waited. I felt like she was saying to me, "Mom I missed you today, and I'm glad you're home." I'm glad we're all home tonight and the girls are sleeping soundly in their beds. What a wonderful life I have. My family is my greatest blessing.

Thanks for the beautiful flowers Auntie Ann. You always know how to bring beauty into hard situations. Thanks for all the prayers for Brooklyn and our family. We are truly blessed.