Pre-Op? No Problem!

Today was Emmett's pre-op day at Stanford. We were prepared to settle in for a long day since it took almost 8 hours before his last surgery. Today, however, all the stars seemed to be aligned for us. We were in and out in four hours, with an echo, EKG, chest x-ray, physical, consult and bloodwork under our belt. Emmett was such a trooper! He was an angel for the echo and EKG (after a little bribery in the form of a sucker and some fish stickers). He then tolerated the chest x-ray, but did let us know that he wasn't happy about it. We then met with one of his anesthesiologists, a physician's assistant and a nurse practitioner--all women and all rendered powerless by E's big, brown eyes. Oh yes, it was as if he knew they held some part in his fate at this hospital, so he turned on the charm--fluttering his eyelashes and smiling his big, toothy grin at their every word. They were wonderful...they answered all of our questions and seemed supremely confident that his procedure would go well tomorrow. Finally, the last stop of the day--the lab. Let's just say there is a reason they save the bloodwork for last. It did not go so well. The first needle prick was fine--few tears and no screaming. Unfortunately, his blood stopped flowing too soon, so they had to give it a second go. This did not settle well with Emmie...he screamed and cried and sobbed "No, Mommy....pweaze, Mommy" over and over and over again. I felt horrible. Like the worst Mommy in the world. Bad enough, in fact, to promise ice cream as soon as we left that terrible lab. And, true to our word, Joe and I took E out for a big, old scoop of ice cream. We are now back at the hospital and Emmett is sleeping (and snoring) soundly on the bed. YES! One day down...

Now, the best news of all--if all of Emmett's tests come back okay (which we believe they will), he is scheduled to be the first surgery of the day tomorrow--yay!!! If you will recall, last time they didn't get to start his surgery until the evening, so it was a long day of waiting, waiting, waiting. Hopefully, by lunchtime tomorrow, he will be settled into recovery, and we will be holding our beautiful and brave little boy's hand. We check in at 6 a.m. tomorrow and we will post an update as soon as we get a chance. Thank you again for all of your prayers and positive thoughts--they mean more to us than you will ever know. Hugs and kisses from Big E!