24 More Hours Till Check In

The hospital gave us a special soap to use to wash Scarlett's chest last night and tonight and tomorrow morning. The pre-op tests went good on Friday. The plebotomist (person who draws blood) had a gentle touch and said he had a baby of his own. Scarlett was such a little trooper, she hardly cried when he stuck her, and the blood draw was rather quick. He hardly left a mark on her arm.

Then the pre-op nurse did an EKG (electrocardiogram). Scarlett kept squirming around on the hospital bed and making the probes (tiny clamps) attached to the electrodes (sticky pads taped to her skin) fall off, and gosh there are sure  a lot of probes... like at least 10!  Then Laura (hospital Nurse Practitioner i.e. cardiologist) came to assess her. She checked the EKG strip then examined Scarlett's ears and lungs for any type of underlying infection. We need to make sure she's healthly enough to withstand a 7-10 hr surgery.

Then after Laura left, another nurse came and took Scarlett's height, weight, temperature and oxygen level. She told me what was going to happen before/during/after her surgery. Where we will wait during her surgery, where they're taking her after surgery, etc.   At this point I signed the surgical consent forms and I got a little choked up. I felt like I was signing away my child's life. I also signed the blood trasfusion papers, which really got me teary eyed. I can't believe this is happening. :.(

Scarlett weighs 14lbs 8oz. Which is disappointing since she weighed 14lbs 4oz over a month and a half ago. She's definitely plateaued in her weight gain and fallen off her grown curve. : (

When we were done in pre-op on the 2nd floor, it was off to radiology (the x-ray lab) on the 4th floor. Scarlett was already getting ancy by this point and who could blame her?, we'd been there for 2 hours already. We checked in at the same place we did for her prior CT scan and hip ultrasound, I'm very familiar with that area. The x-ray lady came out to get us rather quickly (hardly any wait time at all), then she took us in the x-ray room. I held Scarlett's hands/arms and the x-ray lady held Scarlettls legs in place while a 3rd technician took the pics. It was all pretty quick, but Scarlett was getting pretty fussy from being man-handled and from lying on that cold hard x-ray plate. Then we were done.

Now we just wait until tomorrow morning. The time is now 4:25am. 24 hours from now, we'll be loading the car. Waking up my peacefully sleeping baby and dragging her to the hospital for a 5am check-in. Actually the pre-op nurse said I can check in at 5:30 since I already did all the check-in/paper signing/pre-op stuff. She said I'd just be waiting there an extra 1/2 hour for nothing. Juanita (the surgery scheduler) initially said a 5 am check-in, but if we don't have to be there until 1/2 hour later then all the better.

My cousin Connie is going to stay with my 2yr-old daughter Violet during Scarlett's surgery. God Bless her for agreeing to do it on kind of short notice. My other babysitting plans kind of fell through, complications, obstacles, etc.  Being at our house by 4:30am is kind of a lot to ask of anyone.

Well, I'm sure I'll post again before we leave for the hospital, but it looks like this is it. It's really going to happen. Monday, October 12 is the date of my daughter's second open-heart surgery. Tomorrow is my last day with her before they cut her open and repair her tiny little heart. I don't know what she will be like post-surgery, but I know she won't be the same. God willing she will be better, stronger and ready to be a normal happy, healthy little girl.