During Surgery

7:45
Anderson, mommy(me), and the nurses walked in to the O.R.. Everyone but Anderson had to put our masks on and Anderson thought that was strange so I kept saying, "peek a boo". He did great with the anesthesia mask, just like he practiced. I think the gas smelled funny so he tried once to push it away but we distracted him by talking. We talked about mommy and Anderson having purple on our hands and we talked about the cars he played with in the waiting room. The gas was starting to take affect, he started getting sleepy and he looked like he was not sure about that. I asked him about his bus at home that he had and he looked up at me with his huge blue eyes and started talking kind of silly and then within a minute he was out. As they laid him down on the table, I got a little teary but they let me kiss him on the cheek. Then they brought me out and I started crying a little bit when I was walking down the hallway. It was a long walk so I was mostly put together when I got back to my room but I started crying again when I saw Andy and he gave me a hug. I stopped crying really soon after that and hugged my mom.

My husband wants me to mention that Joe Mauer’s fiancé walked us to the waiting room. We are both big Twins fans so that made his day. 

We got our things and went to sit in the waiting room where I started documenting the day, Mom  texted some of our family and friends, and Andy posted updates on facebook. 

 The nurses gave us a pager that would help us keep in touch during the surgery. A nurse would call and tell us little updates through out. 
The waiting:
8:35 Got a page that told us they were starting the procedure. Dr. Lim had marked Andersons hand with all the cuts that he wanted to make and they were ready to start.

9:35 Page that everything is going just like they want it. Dr. Lim is working on the first fingers. He is going slow. On the first side of the hand will do the  back next then move on to the next finger.

10:00 We went to the cafeteria and ate gross, expensive, food. we desided not to eat there again. Andy's mom and dad arrived. it was great to have them come support us and Anderson.

10:30 Page: fingers are separated and Dr. is sewing it up, skin grafts will be starting soon, everything else is going well. 

11:30 Page: both sets fingers are separated, skin removed, now more sewing then start the skin graft

11:35 we tried to go to our overnight room but it was not clean yet. the nurses told us about Ronald McDonald house. Andy reserved a room for us for the night.

12:00 we went to the Ronald McDonald house for lunch. It was a wonderful space. A large full kitchen, beautiful spot to eat, a living room area to relax. Down the Hall there were many units, basically hotel rooms, where people can stay if they need a place while their loved ones are in the hospital.

 

12:30 Page: Dr. Lim had a little more suturing to do then would start grafting.
1:00 We headed back to the waiting room. I got the game "banana grams" from the Ronald McDonald house to try to speed up the time. It helped. We played a few games  and I hardly even had time to think about the surgery. 

1:30 Page: still grafting, casting in about a half hour

2:10 A nurse called us back into a consultation room where we met with Dr. Lim. He told

 us the surgery went well and he was optimistic about Anderson's recovery. I was so relieved that we could see him soon. I just wanted to hold him. Dr. Lim explained to us that the surgery had taken longer then planned because he had to figure out how far the webs should go down. In the end he said the extra time gave Anderson slightly longer fingers. This is great since his hand is shorter than the other, it may help them look even more the same.
We went back to the waiting room 

2:20 Last page: Anderson is getting his cast on and we might get to see him in 20 min. They were also going to start waking him up from anesthesia.
2:40 They came and got us to go to the recovery room.

The total surgery time was 6 hours but he had gone in to the or at 7:40 and we did not see him till almost 3:00. Thats almost 7 hours of waiting.

The waiting was a mix of emotions. I had strong moments and moments where I felt sick. Moments where I just wanted to sit on the ground and cry. Moments where I wished I could go lay down because I was so tired both physically and emotionally. I would be fine and then a thought would creep into my head. I thought of my sweet Anderson so innocently playing with all the toys and cars before going into surgery. He had no idea what was coming. I wished he did not have to wake up in pain. I would have moments where I would think about how great it was that he was getting his fingers separated and how some kids might not get the chance to get them separated. I had moments where I was nicely distracted by our family or by walking around or by eating lunch or drinking coffee.

The pages that we got about once an hour was very nice. It broke up what turned put to be a 6 hour surgery. I could make it to each new hour when we would get a page and a smigen of information that my husband would bring back from each phone call from the operating room.  I prayed quite a bit for God to give me strength and to be with Anderson and the Dr.s and nurses working on him. There is no peace like the peace that God gives when you trust in Him.