Long Day!

We made it!!  Thank you all for praying for Rebekah today.  The schedule ran as smoothly as I have ever seen on a pre-op day.  There was a bit of a snag in the admissions office this morning since Rebekah was a last-minute change to the surgery schedule.  They did not have her updated surgery date and paperwork ready, so it took a little longer than usual to get through the admissions process.

Once that was done, though, we sailed right through the morning.  As soon as we got to the pre-op room, the nurses were waiting on us.  They got her height (33 and 1/2"), weight (23 lbs.), oxygen sats (97-100%) and blood pressure (86/43).  The nurses had hardly finished that when the EKG technician came in to do Rebekah's EKG.  Rebekah was as good as gold, and they got a perfect reading the first time!  As soon as she was done, we headed straight down to x-ray where we waited for a total of TWO minutes before we were called back to have Rebekah's chest x-rays done.  Back up to the pre-op room just in time to walk back out to echo.  Rebekah did beautifully for both her x-ray and echo.  No sedation needed!!

We were back to the pre-op room, and that's when things took a big stall.  We were waiting for the doctors, surgeon, and surgeon's assistant to come in and look over all of the tests and x-rays and talk to us about surgery and sign consent forms.  We waited and waited and waited and waited and...you get the picture.  :)  Hospital time is like no other time in the world!  So finally about 4:00 all of the doctors had made their rounds, talked about the surgery, recovery, possible risks, complications, and legalese!

There really were no big surprises today from a surgery standpoint.  Dr. Bradley still has the same plan that we discussed several weeks ago in our phone conversation.  He told me today that at least he has a plan to start with and that he would be "making it up as he goes" once he actually gets into Rebekah's chest.  He is a little concerned about having to tie this new artery into Rebekah's pulmonary conduit because the conduit is working so well.  Dr. Bradley said that he really doesn't want to mess with that conduit, but we don't really have any other options.  So please pray for no complications!

I think Rebekah (finally!!) just went to sleep, so I'm going to sign off and join her.  Please pray that she (and I!) will be able to sleep tonight.  She was very tired and grumpy at dinner tonight, but when we got back to the hotel and I put her in bed, she was wide awake and bouncing (literally!).  She does not need to go into a major surgery sleep-deprived!

Thank you all for your prayers and comments both on the blog and facebook.  We are so blessed by so many of you praying and caring for our family!

Nancy