A Sigh of Relief

Today was a long day. Actually, this morning was a long day. We arrived at the hospital at 7:40 to visit with Grace before her surgery was to take place. About 10 minutes later, the OR nurses began wheeling in a vast amount of equipment, carts, and curtains to block off her "room" to prepare it for surgery. The time moving the stuff in and out and preparing for the surgery more than doubled the actual amount of time that the surgery actually took.

After saying goodbye and telling our little one how much we loved her, two nervous parents went to sit in the waiting room. The anesthesiologist came in first to explain how our two pound daughter would be on morphine and all sorts of other drugs to take care of pain, keep her comfortable, and keep her from moving her tiny little body, including her tiny little ductus and nerves around during the surgery. She left and the surgeon arrived next, to explain to us (again) what the PDA is, why it needs to be closed, and what the procedure would entail. Now, I have to give St. Joe's some credit here. They make absolute certain that we are well informed about what is going to happen with this surgery. In the past three weeks, not including any research we did before or during this whole timespan, we must have had upwards of 20 people explaining the PDA and the surgery. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about being educated. I simply feel that now I could teach just about anyone about a PDA.

Will and I occupied ourselves during Grace's surgery today attempting to make the laptop connect to the internet (it did not oblige) and writing thank-you notes. Before we knew it, the surgeon returned announcing the glorious words, "Everything went well and Grace is doing just fine." Whew, there's that big weight lifted off our chests immediately.

According to Grace's nurse tonight, she is doing excellently. Finally, we have heard something other than, "Most babies do well with this surgery." While this may be useful information when talking about most babies, it really tells you nothing about how your own child will handle it. So, at last, we have an answer for Grace.