Surgery Day

Well, it's over. Faith's surgery took place this morning at about 8:15. She is good as gold now, with a rockin new profile :) Here is a summary of our day. When reading, keep in mind that Faith likes her bottle immediately when she gets up in the morning...but because of surgery, she was not allowed to have anything after midnight.

5:00 AM: Mom hears a strange noise, and figuring out it was the alarm, she hits snooze.

5:30 AM: Mom and Dad getting the last of our things together to leave. We look over at Faith who we hope is still asleep...but what we see is Faith with a huge smile on her face! Please go back to sleep, honey...you can't have a bottle!

5:50AM: Mom is pushing the stroller. She has the shades drawn, hoping Faith will be lulled to sleep by the vibrations of the stroller. She sneaks a peek and sees those two big blue eyes looking back at her! Faith then proceeds to grab her carseat toy butterfly and play with it. We are thinking "ticking time bomb!"

6:00 AM: We arrive in outpatient services and go to a room. I put Faith in her tiny hospital gown and lay down on the bed with her, eventually getting her into a light snooze. Surgery is not until 7:30.

6:30 AM: Nurse comes in, turning on the lights, and talking baby talk to Faith. Bubba and I just look at each other. We are thinking "Oh, No!...not now lady! Do you know what you've probably done?" Faith starts screaming as she takes her vitals and continues to talk to her. It took me 5 minutes or so to get her calmed back down and back to sleep on my chest. Bubba and I exchange a glance, "whoa, that was a close one." I thought we were good to go.

6:40 AM: Nurse bursts back into the room exclaiming she forgot a couple of things. She needed to measure Faith's length and her head? "Why?" we are asking ourselves, "is this so important as to wake a sleeping, hungry baby?" The nurse assures us that we will be left alone until close to 7:30 because they don't come get young children until just before surgery. "ok, we can handle it."


7:00 AM: Surgery transport opens the door and says "they're ready for you." Wow....I was thinking maybe the doctor got here early??? That would be amazing! I wrap Faith in a blanket, Bubba grabs our things, and I carry her a really, really, really long ways to the pre-op room. In the pre-op room, there are like 10 patients getting ready for surgery, talking to doctors, and receiving anesthesia. We are scared to death that Faith will wake and scream until the doctor arrives, disturbing all the adults who probably have enough on their mind waiting on their own surgery.

7:15 AM: We meet the Dr's OR nurse and our anesthesiologist. There are nice, and say that our dr. sometimes runs a little late. Ok, 5 minutes won't hurt anything, we are thinking... We apologize in advance to the nurse and tell her that if she wakes up, Faith will be wanting her bottle...immediately!

7:35 AM: No Doctor.

7:45 AM: No Doctor. All the other patients have gone into surgery.

7:58 AM: Doctor arrives. He comes in, apologizing...saying he had a long night. Not exactly what you want to hear from your doctor...he leaves, and I hand Faith over to the anesthesiologist, giving her a kiss for good luck.

8:50 or so AM: Bubba and I have been in the family waiting room. The phone rings for us. I answer and am told that surgery is taking longer than expected, but Faith is doing great.

9:20 AM: Doctor comes out and meets with us in the hall. Surgery went well. The cyst was a little embedded in her bone, so he had to scrape it away. The cyst had burst while he was removing it, but he felt that he had managed to get it all. He tells us that she has internal dissolve able stitches and glue on the external area. He directs us to wait for Faith coming out of recovery.

9:25 AM: We see her coming. One nurse is carrying Faith, and another nurse is holding her IV. Faith has her little eyes open and looking around...but really no expression yet. We walk behind her back to our room. Faith keeps her eyes fixed on us as we all walk. She was wide-eyed!

9:45 AM: We are back in the room. Daddy fixes her bottle, and Faith gladly partakes. She was groggy, but that didn't keep her from downing that bottle. After the bottle, she wouldn't really go back to sleep. She wanted to sit up and look around. Bubba brought us breakfast, and Faith was reaching for my tray and watching me intently as I ate.

10:15 AM: IV gets taken out. Faith didn't even whine. She just looked at the nurse and looked at her hand....watching what the nurse was doing. The nurse leaves to get our discharge papers in order.

11:00 AM: We walk out of there! I carried Faith at first, because she was in such a cute mood. She smiled and screamed and flapped her arms for the nurses. We got stopped at every nurses station for them to swoon over her. We were told she was the happiest patient ever seen leaving surgery :)

11:15 AM: At home, having bottle number 2. Dad and I are ready for a family Siesta. ahhh!

1:30 PM: Faith wakes up. I gave her her morning bananas and all is well. She's been playing ever since!


Bubba and I are so thankful for a successful surgery today. The Lord really took his little girl in His hands today. We are thankful for the skill of the surgeon and for a good reaction to the anesthesia. We thank everyone for your prayers and calls and texts.

Faith proved again today that she is our perfect gift of Life after a rough year. We were told multiple times by different nurses that we had indeed named her correctly. She is such a good baby. We would not have blamed her if she had screamed from 5:30 on!

She's our little miracle...with a rockin' new profile :)