It's THAT time.... surgery time!

My mind has not fully wrapped itself around this procedure. I have not been fully confident that we were going to do this. My prayer and answer for the past few weeks has been "I think this is what we are doing... if it is not what God wants he will tell me."

Really... I am in a zone on this one. And it's crazy too, because this is a relatively simple one! Today our two fabulous orthopedic surgeons are putting screws in the growth plates on the longer bone in Nathaniel's lower legs. This bone is growing faster than the other one, causing his feet to twist in an odd way. So the theory is that we are going to hold them still and allow the other bone to catch up. Good theory I guess... walking is great! But seriously, I am in a fog on this one.

We are at a new surgery center. Before, all of our Ortho stuff has been done at Ventura General, but today the doctors needed to operate at Cottage Outpatient in Santa Barbara. The latest surgery time they could give us was 830 am, which means we left home at 430 this morning! Crazy tired.

Before when we have done general, Nathaniel has been allowed clear fluids up till about 3 hours before surgery. Not this time. They were adamant that he have NOTHING after midnight. Of course he woke up at 130 this morning DEMANDING water. Every 15 minutes he would ask me for water.... every 15 minutes like clockwork from 130 am till they took him back.

So we got here right at 630. Good timing. They took us back to the Pre Op room at 745ish... good timing for an 830 surgery. They got us all ready, then told us 10 more minutes... not bad. Only running like 15 minutes behind. Not bad at all. Then there we sat. FOREVER. With Nathaniel STILL begging for water constantly.

 At 915 I asked how much longer... no answer.

At 930 I asked if there was a problem..... no answer. 

At 945 I was about to pee my pants and I DEMANDING to know what the heck was going on. So little lady, who clearly did NOT speak English went off to find someone to help me....

At 955 FINALLY someone came in and said "Didn't anyone tell you what was going on?"

Ummm...... NO! It seems that no one bothered to make sure that the OR had the tools needed to do Nathaniel's procedure today! So they had to get them from another facility. Then they had to process the tools their way. And then FINALLY at 1015 they took him back to the OR... FINALLY. I have heard such great things about this facility, but they did not live up to their reputation for us today!

And now in the time that I have written this the doctor has come out to tell me that they have done both legs, and Nat is in recovery now. That is good... waking up is how I like him best during these things! He might get mean, he might get violent... but all of that is signs that he is waking up and made it through yet another procedure....

Thank you LORD!

Updated Again: I guess in my hurry to get back to the recovery room, I THOUGHT that I pushed publish.. but I guess not. We made it home and had a restful night. It was wonderful to have my children back together again, see how concerned Audrey was for her brother, and just relax together.

I also did the first dressing change, and while one leg looked BEAUTIFUL, the other looked pretty bad. Please pray with me that it was just these mommy eyes, and that is everything is just as it should be!