Surgery Tomorrow

So I think we are all set for surgery tomorrow....at least as ready as we're going to get. The surgery is scheduled for 11:00 am but we have to be at the hospital for 9:00. I'm glad our surgery time isn't too late in the day because obviously Josh isn't able to eat or drink before the surgery so I was hoping it wouldn't end up being a late surgery - 11am is a good time.

We had our pre-op appointment today which was interesting. A little prelude I suppose to what to expect from Josh tomorrow....a lot of crying and pleading to go home, a constant reminder that 'I no like the doctor' and his insistance that his hernia was already fixed at the store. Ugh, poor guy. He won't be impressed tomorrow when we have to go back to the hospital.

The pre-op appointment was interesting. We first met with a nurse who I guess basically runs/organizes the clinic and performs the pre-op assessment - which in Josh's case involved only a height and weight check. I suspect there's usually more involved than that but after seeing Josh's less than cooperative nature she said, 'Well we can just do the rest tomorrow when he's asleep'. Okay fine. Then she quickly runs through her checklist of questions: Is he currently on any medications? No. Does he have any allergies? No. Has he ever had a general anesthetic before? Okay, seriously? So I guess she hadn't read his chart like at all. So I gave a brief rundown of his medical history and answered the rest if her questions and then waited for the anesthesiologist - who by the way was awesome!

His name was Dr. Rosen and he was incredibly nice and helpful and better yet he had actually read Josh's chart thoroughly and was quite well rehearsed in his medical history. He even offered to put a page in to Dr. Gow (Josh's cardiologist) to see if we could get an echo while Josh is in the recovery room.

Cardiology called me last week with a date for Josh's one year follow up appointment, which has been booked for June 22. Even before this surgery came up I knew that Josh probably wasn't going to sit and cooperate for his echo and ECG again this year, but now after going through this experience Josh's dislike for doctors and, well, the hospital in general is only going to be that much stronger.

I had called cardiology myself on Monday to let them know about the surgery and the liklihood that the echo would be a no-go again this year and I inquired about the possiblity of getting the echo done while Josh was asleep for the surgery. I figured it likely wouldn't be possible given that it involves coordinating several different teams, but I had to at least ask. I never did get a response back from them so I brought it up with Dr. Rosen who offered to make an attempt to coordinate the teams involved, but did admit that 'it's very hard to organize something like that.' Hopefully it works out and Josh stays drowsy enough in the recovery room that they are able to get the echo done.

Another interesting thing I learned is that CHEO does in fact allow a parent to accompany their child into the operating room until they are asleep. I was dreading the moment when they would have to take Josh to the OR (kicking and screaming no doubt) without me. However, because of Josh's medical history (heart defect, post-natal stroke, history of seizures, etc) the anesiosiologist in the OR tomorrow may decide to not let me in the OR because Josh's medical history makes things much more complicated ): I sure hope this isn't the case.

I think Dr. Rosen sensed my disappointment with this statement and tried to put me at ease by telling me that Josh will be receiving a sedative when he arrives to the daycare surgery unit so that by the time he heads in to the OR he should be calm, relaxed and in a 'happy place'. I'd like to believe that, but somehow I just don't think any amount of sedative is going to put Josh in a 'happy place' tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.