Namine has just been taken back into the operating room, so Jessica and I, along with Chyral and her boyfriend, have deposited ourselves into the waiting room. We expect to see more family before the day is out. (I was going to say “morning,” but it’s noon now.) We are told to expect about a three hour waiting period, but Dr. Arca will have a better idea once Namine is opened up so the hernia can be inspected at first hand.
I got Namine up at about 6:20 this morning to give her some Pedialite before the 6:45 cutoff. After that point, she was not allowed to have any liquids, in preparation for the surgery. At 7:05, I called the special needs doctor’s pager number, which he gave to me yesterday, in order to find out if, in fact, Namine could actually even have surgery today. He called me back expediently, and said that yes, Dr. Arca would be in to do the surgery. As far as there being room on the PICU floors, well, we’d have to come in and find out for ourselves.
As it turned out, there was room, after all. We were late arriving due to crazy traffic, but we were taken back into the operation waiting room, where they eventually came to give Namine versid. In case you don’t remember, that’s the “goofy juice.” The older Namine gets, the longer it seems to take to make her loopy. When doctors and nurses came by to talk to us about today’s procedures, she was still lucid and so wailed quite a bit. Can you blame her?
Namine’s cardiologists always told us that because of her complex heart, she always always always needs to have a cardioanesthesiologist (sound it out, one syllable at a time) present. Not just an anesthesiologist. But today they didn’t have a cardio doctor, and we made them find one before allowing them to take Namine back. I’m pretty sure that poor man is afraid of my wife.
But we make no excuses: this is our daughter, and we will have no shortcuts made at her expense.
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