Today's THE Day

Well, we made it to Children's this morning -- no calls over the weekend. We had to be here at 6:30 am on Monday morning. It's now 9am and Charlotta went into the operating room about an hour ago.

She was a lot more anxious about the surgery than I had expected. Over the weekend and even early this morning she was quite nonchalant and didn't mention it, although in our family we had been talking about it in general terms. All that changed after we got to the hospital this morning and Charlotta got changed into her blue hospital gown. That's when the anxious wailing began: "I want to go home. When can we go home? Mom will you take me home? Is it time to go home yet?" ... all accompanied by huge sobs. Nothing I could do or say would calm her down.

The anesthetist finally gave her an oral sedative... Which sort of worked. I was able to accompany her as she was wheeled into the operating room at just after 8am (I had to wear a scrub gown, hair cap and little booties over my shoes). Quite soon after we arrived in the OR, they started an IV in Charlotta's hand and then administered the medicine to make her go to sleep. It was only then that she finally settled down.

Now I'm sitting in the coffee shop and prepared for the long wait ahead. When I spoke with the surgeon this morning, he said he'd probably be finished around 8pm, but that I could check with the nurses station for an update after lunch.