Giana's Surgery

While I know that I need to post about Christmas, I really wanted to get some pics up of my brave little Giana today. Giana had surgery this morning to get tubes put in both of her ears. She's had consistent double ear infections since Sept. and has been on 6 antibiotics, all of which have not really given her (or us) and relief. Since Talia was not allowed in the hospital (b/c of the H1N1 virus, and she is younger than 12), Giana and I left the house at 5:45 am to get to Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington by 6:30. The ride was fast, and we arrived by 6:10. We were able to go into a pre-op room right away. Our nurse, Star was so nice and Giana really seemed to like her too. I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, and Giana was really calm and in a great mood. After being weighed (10.9 kilos--right at 24 pounds), I changed her into her little yellow gown and red booties.

Right around 7, she received some medication, to help to make her drowsy before the surgery. Well, it did not only make her drowsy, but it made her loopy too! She was laughing at everything that I said. It was great!

Around 7:15, the anesthesiologist came in to tell me the procedures: since it was a relatively short procedure, she would get a mask with gas and go completely under; no IV was necessary; and finally that there was a really small risk on anything going wrong...which did make me feel better. I told him (through my tears) that I was most concerned about her going under and he assured me that he would be with her the whole time. Right at 7:30, Dr. Cundiff, the ENT, who also is a friend of ours from Bradley (his wife Lauren is one of my close friends and I stood up to her wedding, as she did ours) asked if I had any questions, told me that it would be a fast procedure and that he would take care of her like she was his. When Star came back to get Giana to take her back to the OR a few minutes later, she was pretty sleepy and was happy to go into the big crib and be wheeled away. She had her animal book, her pacifier and her blanket with her. I shed a few tears, grabbed our stuff, and headed out to the waiting room. Around 7:55, Jason (Dr. Cundiff) came out, told me that Giana did great, and was already back to breathing on hew own. A few minutes later, they called me back to a post op room, so that I would be there waiting for her when she arrived. When they wheeled her in, she was lying face down seemingly half asleep, but when she saw me, she started to cry and tried to get up for me to hold her. I quickly grabbed her, although her tears and cries did not end. I quickly made her a 6 ounce bottle, which she quickly drank and then continued to cry, wanting more. After another 4 ounce bottle, she was quieter, but then burped, which seemed to scare her and then she let out a very loud cry.

POOR BABY! I would get her to calm down and she would burp again, and then cry again. It was a tough 45 minutes or so. After her vitals were good for a while, we were free to go.

She did not want me to put her down, so as soon as I tried to change her out of her yellow gown, she began to cry again and continued crying until we got in the car. After a few minutes of listening to HSM, she fell asleep around 9, and actually transferred to her crib once we got home. She slept until 11:15 and seemed happy and hungry when she woke up. She played, but was a bit irritable, but continued to smile and laugh. She took a longer afternoon nap and had a great evening. She seemed to be back to her happy self. She has even started to make a silly smiley face, which shows her 2 front teeth. So cute!

We hope that tomorrow will be a great day for her. We are so thankful that her surgery went well today. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate them.