Our Day at the Hospital

We woke early and got Claire ready to leave.  She was a little concerned that it was still very dark outside and very, very concerned that she couldn't have breakfast.  

Each night as I'm tucking Claire into bed, she goes over what she plans to eat for breakfast in great detail.  We usually visit that conversation 2 or 3 times before she settles in and accepts her kisses and hugs. Of course, the night before surgery, I had to tell her that she could not have breakfast the next day.  Before she was even awake enough to get out of bed, she was already talking about "no breakfast."

We drove through the dark to pick up Jenny who agreed to help out at the hospital.   By the time we made it to the parking garage, the sun was up and we could see where to park and head inside.  We checked in at 6:50 a.m.

As usual, it is a hurry-up-and-wait  process.  Wait for the lady who looks over the insurance papers.  Wait for the arm band.  Go upstairs and wait in the first waiting room for a long time.  Go get vitals taken once again and receive a beautiful outfit. 

Don't you think Claire looks pretty in light blue?

 From here, we answered all the pre-op questions--you know, the ones we had to go to the hospital one day last week to answer, and go over at least three more times before getting to this step. While the nurse was typing, they realized that they forgot to put a bed in our room, so one was wheeled in.  After the questions were finished up, we got to ride the bed down to pre-op and wait some more.   Claire wasn't too thrilled with this wait.  Nobody seemed to be able to find the orders for the blood draw so it took awhile.  Lots of strangers kept coming up and talking way too fast about things Claire didn't understand.  She was just ready to get this all over with and go home.  She repeatedly reminded us that she was hungry and wanted some breakfast. 

 It was nice to have Jenny there to provide extra distraction whenever Claire was about ready to bolt.  Jenny was awesome about keeping track of the bag of clothes and supplies, too.  

There was a bit of real fear as they wheeled Claire back to the operating room  I was not allowed to stay with her until she went to sleep, or to be there when she woke.   Hospital policy isn't always the most child friendly thing.

We waved good bye and then went to the second waiting room to sit until we were called.

The doctor came out to see me after about an hour.  Everything looked pretty good. There were no cysts. The scars were not blocking the airways. There are lots of scars, but it appears that the only impact might be that the scars on her vocal chords change the tone of her voice.  He did see some irritation and swelling that appears to be caused by reflux.  He is referring us to a gastroenterologist to evaluate why this might be occuring.

A couple ounces of apple juice helped with the waking up process.   Then we were wheeled back to a room to recover.  Claire was really impatient with the whole process.  She was irritated by the blood on her hands and the various tubes. So, we spent a little time carefully cleaning her up.  Then we had a long discussion about tigers and their teeth.   Hey, at least we weren't talking about breakfast for a few minutes.  :-)

Can't I get all these "pokes" off and go get some breakfast?

We got home around 3 o'clock.  Claire settled on the couch to watch Angelina Ballerina and eat a bowl of oatmeal.     Breakfast at last!

Thanks go out  to everyone who prayed.  It is good to see a healthy trachea and esophagus and rule out one more possible problem.  It was also a blessing to be able to get the lab work for liver tests done while Claire was unaware of the process. Any time we can avoid the stress associated with "pokes" is a blessing.

I don't suppose we will ever be fully aware of the miracles God is doing on a regular basis.   I believe He is at work mending and healing and restoring things we know nothing about. He deserves more praise and glory than any of us is capable of giving.  I hope that you will take a moment as you read these results, to say thank you to the God who is taking care of our precious girl according to His awesome plan for her life.