Surgery

April 22, 2011
Gabriella had surgery for a double hernia. They weren't causing her any discomfort, but since they don't heal on their own, we had to have them repaired. We prepped her for the hospital journey with a preadmission hospital tour (which really helped) and lots of books related to hospital visits. She was pretty relaxed on the day of surgery (unlike Mom and Dad!)

1. Waiting Room. Her favorite part of surgery was playing in the waiting room. It was super early in the morning so we were the first people there. She had ALL the toy animals to herself. She was in heaven and was incredibly disappointed to leave the waiting room.

2. Vitals. Gabriella remained relaxed throughout the preadmission medical screening (albeit a little disappointed to leave all of the waiting room toys.) In this picture she is holding her bunny that Grandma gave her that morning. Omama told her that the bunny would take care of her and Gabriella took that to heart. The bunny stayed with her throughout the day.

3.Walk down to Surgery floor. Gabriella was satisfied with the cuteness of her hospital pajamas. She was also excited to try out the super special, top secret, for-surgical-patients-only elevator. On the hospital tour she was told that Nemo was hiding on the wall (the elevator had an underwater mural on the walls/ceiling) and she felt compelled to find him.

4.Waiting for Surgery. Nothing feels better when you’re a little cold and tired than your Daddy’s lap. Here Gabriella is relaxing in Daddy’s lap along with her coveted green blanket and new safe keeper, the pink bunny.

5.Surgery and “Wake Up Room”. (No photos.) When it was time for Gabriella to head back to surgery I was pleased at how well the transition went. They no longer wheel the kids back on a bed, instead, the surgeon walks the child back, hand in hand, into the surgery area. Gabriella was able to wave goodbye and had a big smile on her face. The surgeon later told us that she was quite chatty all the way up until she fell asleep!
When she woke up in the Recovery Room the nurse came out and one of us was then allowed to visit her. (Sorry Stew – I totally elbowed him out of the way!) This was probably the worst part of the whole day – she was really scared and shivering. She started crying and was able to express that she was really hurting. We got her a heated blanket and they gave her some morphine. She was able to fall back to sleep and things improved drastically after that point. (A little morphine always helps the day, right?)


6. Post Recovery Room. Once she felt better, we were able to wheel her back upstairs to the ambulatory day surgery area to rest some more. Stew was able to join at this point and Gabriella was happy to have both of us there. Right when we entered the room, Stew took out his laptop and began setting it up. I couldn’t believe he was going to start doing work at this time. Are you kidding me?? Then I saw it.

The Lion King DVD.

Daddy, the Hero.

I couldn’t believe he thought of bringing the laptop and one of her DVDs. It was PERFECT. I could see her immediately relax with this comfortable and familiar distraction.

7.Easter Bunny Visit. Before we left for the day, the Easter Bunny visited all the kids in the hospital. Gabriella, of course, was thrilled. She received a stuffed bunny, a homemade quilt, and some other swag. You can see her change in affect in this picture. We left shortly after the Easter Bunny visit and she was feeling much better.

Gabriella really handled her surgery quite well! She took Tylenol a couple of times that day and once the next day and that was it for medicine. Maybe there was something to that pink bunny protector? Whatever the case, we are relieved to have this behind us!