February Third - The Big Day.........

Yesterday my mind popped open at 3 AM. Babygirl's dialysis alarm was going off, I reset it, and went back to bed to no avail.  I went downstairs with a book, read for a couple of hours and fell asleep, and was re-awakened by a random phone call.  I took Babygirl off the machine, got her ready for school and started prepping for my "Day Off".  The plan was to paint.

Two minutes after she went out the door, THE phone call came. Not one of those "she's on standby" calls.  This was the real deal, first in line this time. 

So hubby and I did the Chicken-With-Its-Head-Cut-Off dance, running around, packing, checking lists.  Babygirl hadn't unpacked from LAST time, so that was helpful.  I took a shower (interrupted by no less than THREE phone calls). But we honestly expected a bit more time based on the dry runs.  Not so.

Two hours after the first call, we were told to hit the road.  I had already called the school nurse with orders to not let her eat, and now I called again - no eating, no drinking, and get her down to the health office so I could come for her.  Run to the bank.  Fill the gas tank (see, I TOLD you I wasn't disciplined enough about that!), pick up the kid and start flying to the hospital.

We arrived at 2:30.  They hustled us to a room, ran tests, and we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  They had told us to expect to start to pre-op at 8 PM.  Near as I can tell it took a bit longer for organ harvest than expected, so we hit pre-op about 9:30 and the procedure started at 11PM.  NYCgirl met us at the hospital, and my sister-in-law stayed with us also. 

So what do you do when you are waiting for a life-and-death procedure on your youngest to be completed?  Well, we played Taboo for about 2 hours, burning off a great deal of stress with a lot of nonsense and laughter.  We drank coffee, and hot chocolate, and ate saltines.  Oh, and M&Ms.  And some pita chips. And anything else that fell into our hands that we figured would taste better than our fingernails.

Sometime after 2 AM they came to tell us it was done - much sooner than they had led us to believe.  Another hour and we were in intensive care, where we remain. 

I have to say, these people ROCK.  They aren't willing to let her suffer and scream.  They aren't willing to see us cry.  They aren't willing to let her lie in a puddle because a catheter is leaking. They aren't willing to give up until they get it right.  So kudos to your, CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia).  You beat the crap out of our local center hands down.

She has a fresh wound that I estimate to be about 9 inches long.  It is clean, doesn't require a dressing and already looks like it's been there a while.  Her PD tube is gone, which makes her incredibly happy.  She asked for her pills to take when she had her Jello and was stunned to be told that she doesn't need them anymore.

It was one of the longest days of my life.  I laughed, I cried, I cussed at recalcitrant traffic lights and pushed the limits of how fast the PA Turnpike police will let you go without a ticket (we passed a speed trap just as a car was passing us - the only one to do so all day.  He got nailed, and we sailed). I read and reread the same chapter of a book.  I updated friends and family with texts and Facebook.

I'm still wondering about the 3 AM thing.  I have no way of knowing for sure when our donor's family made their decision to go ahead.  But I have my suspicions.

DeeDee