Pre-Surgery

Tim:

Quick update.  Today we woke up early to give us enough time to get to the Children's Hospital by 8:30am.  Surgery wasn't scheduled until 11:30am, but there's plenty that needed to happen before surgery began so they wanted us there three hours early.

When we arrived at the hospital we discovered that an emergency surgery had been added to the schedule before Michael's surgery, so his probably won't start until 4pm at the earliest.  As is often the situation here, ours is a case of "hurry up and wait".  We rush to get to the hospital on time, only to spend hours waiting for our turn!

The poor kid hasn't been able to eat anything in anticipation of his surgery, so now that it's been delayed he's starving.  He's been patient, though, hanging in here like a real trooper.

We were fortunate enough to get a sleep room for tonight.  Unfortunately it's not much more than a hide-a-bed, but it worked fine for a quick afternoon nap for Liz.  We were also able to reserve the Ronald McDonald house down the street from the hospital, so we'll plan on staying there for the next few weeks.

Right now we're just hanging tight is a small pre-op room.  Things are starting to pick up a bit as nurses and doctors are talking to us and making their final preparations.  Just a few minutes ago we spoke with Dr. O'Neill, Michael's brain surgeon, and were asking him questions about the procedure.  Towards the end Liz asked me if there was else I wanted to "pick his brain" about.  Her unintentional choice of words gave us all a good laugh.

It looks like they're going to start around 4pm.  Since it's a 6-8 hour surgery it's going to be a late night tonight.