Pre-Op Day

Part of me wants to start collecting these.
The rational side says that that would probably
be a little depressing. 

At this point, documenting Brandt's third surgery, I feel like I repeat myself a lot in these blog posts. Hospital stuff gets kind of tedious, to be honest, even if blogging about it serves a purpose. At first, with his first two surgeries, blogging was kind of a coping mechanism. The first time, because my head was so foggy with new baby hormones that I could hardly remember everything in a straight line unless I wrote it down...and I just happened to have an audience for it. The second time, I kept it going for the audience, and ended up using it as a way to help myself see the big picture when I felt like I was drowning in the medical world. Something about summarizing the days was actually helpful, rather than focusing on all the tiny details.

So now, we've reached the eve of surgery number three, and I find myself not needing to blog like I used to, but I plan to keep at it for posterity's sake. And yours, of course, Reader, because apparently you're interested enough to click through from a Facebook link! If you're anything like me, that takes a pretty high level of intrigue. So thanks for following along with us for the last two years!

When the toddler gets ahold of the cell
phone camera...#purpletootsies

Prologue aside, today was pre-op day. Basic physicals, EKG, and his history taken -- an unnecessary step if you ask me, because 95% of his medical history has taken place within the walls of SCH -- then after lunch we came back for a consult with Dr. Chen, the surgeon that has done all of Brandt's open-hearts so far. We discussed the game plan, different methods he might have to use, his hopes to cut the stent in his LPA. Also went over the recovery time for the Fontan, which is, apparently, the longest of the three. With such a revamp of his plumbing, there's always a lot of fluid retention, which means we expect his drain tubes to remain active for a couple weeks, most likely. Aside from that, we've got our fingers crossed for a smooth ride.

After that, we met with the NP for anesthesia who took a relevant history (again), and then got our information for check-in tomorrow.

Okay, maybe he got ahold of it more
than once...

Oh, by the way, our surgery got bumped from Friday to TOMORROW. I'm SO excited about that!! If you clicked over from Facebook, you probably already figured that much out from my last post, but it bears repeating. There's no emergent reason behind the change...Dr. Chen had a slot open up in the morning, because the original inhabitants of said slot got sick, so he offered it to us! Not wanting to have to sit through two extra days of scrub-sanitize-don'ttouchthat!-repeat, we obviously jumped on the opportunity. Not only does this move us closer, but we're now first case instead of second, which is a whole lot easier to deal with as far as toddlers and empty stomachs go.

Eh, might as well. Selfie!

So. Tomorrow we check in at 7:15, surgery at 8:30, and he should be done by 1:30 or 2 at the latest, if there aren't any surprises. Wade will likely get to spend most of the morning in a preschool program here at the Ron-Don (apparently it's a new thing, within the past two weeks, where two teachers come in two days a week and do preschool with any kids that want to participate. He had a blast with it this morning) while Tanner and I kill time at the hospital. For tonight, we're going to try to find something fun to do as a last hurrah for the foreseeable future, and enjoy our last bit of time that we aren't tethered to the hospital.

Just a note:
We expect to be in the CICU for a few days following surgery, which isn't a great time for hordes of visitors. One or two family members here and there is okay, but we're only allowed three people (total, including Tanner and I) in the room at a time. If anyone does care to visit at any point, the rules on the floor are much easier to work with, so next week is probably the earliest that we can start accepting visitors.