Nothing could blow the lid off my normally high anxiety more than taking my little girl to Sick Kids for surgery.
It was just dental surgery. Not heart or brain or any other major surgery like so many other kiddos have there every day. But surgery nonetheless.
Handing her over to a strange nurse. IV’s. Breathing tubes.
I was scared.
After a restless night for me, we were up at the buttcrack of dawn and on the road at 6am.
**Yes. She is 3. She still has a soother. I am totally fine with it.
We arrived around 7am and checked in. We registered and were told to wait in the playroom.
About 20 minutes later a nurse came in and told us we were being moved into isolation because of her history with MRSA. Bummer.
So we were taken into an isolation room. Anyone who came in contact with us had to “garb up”. Everyone who came in to see her looked like this:
We were in this room for about 35 minutes. Thank god for back-to-back Dora playing on the tv (that was located on the ceiling).
Finally an older gentleman in full garb came and brought us down a back hall, to a back elevator down to the surgical floor. We were then put into another isolation room. The tv (also on the ceiling) made up for the lack of seating (or anything else) in the room.
They took her back for her surgery – she was so brave to walk to the O.R. with the nurse all by herself. My heart broke to see her walk away.
The procedure went great and the only time I was glad to be in isolation was in recovery. All the kids in general recovery were crying and puking. She somehow managed to get a nice mark on her forehead from lying on her IV. She cried a little and did not puke. She came out of it great and was pretty sleepy for a few hours afterwards.
I just hope that the marks on her forehead and under her eyes go away soon. Poor thing went in for dental surgery and came out looking like she was in a brawl.
I’m so proud of my little girl for being so brave.
And the dr’s at Sick Kids? Fantastic. They don’t just care for the kids – they really take of the parents and it’s them that make challenging days like this manageable. I was especially grateful that the doctor made a point of telling us that her teeth are very well taken care of and that the issues she had are not from lack of care on our part.
That allayed some of the guilt that had been riddling me for weeks.
That allayed some of the guilt that had been riddling me for weeks.
We are back there next Monday for plastics to see whether or not she needs surgery on her neck…
oy.
She is way too cute. The one picture of her with the nurse, she and Marley look so much alike! Does anyone else see it? I’m so glad you were all taken such good care of. She did so well. xoxo