The Mother of all Casts

Today was surgery day. We all arrived at the hospital on time at 10:30. Charlotte, Dad, Mom, and Nanny. 5 bottles of breastmilk were stored away frozen in the diaper bag. We had toys for Charlotte. We had diapers. We had blankets and everything and anything else we could or would need. Surgery was scheduled for 12:45. Two hours later the doctor would be done, an hour after that we would be leaving the hospital heading home....if all goes well we would be home by 4:30. At least that what we thought.

The hospital was a madhouse. The "surgery waiting room" was packed. After Shelby was prepped we found out the woman next to her was being operated on by the same doctor. Her surgery was scheduled for 11:45 am. By now it was 12:45. Needless to say a hospital is exactly like an airport. One delay just bumps everyone else. The hospital was like Logan Airport during a snowstorm....at Thanksgiving. Nurses running around looking for spots to stick patients, waiting for patients to come out of the OR and doing their best to shuffle around each other. Around 3pm they were finally ready for Shelby. Charlotte at this point had already had a bottle, had taken one nap, and had done an amazing job being confined to her stroller for four and a half hours. Not to mention we think she was the highlight of all of the nurses in the prep area. I would imagine they don't see too many 5 month olds there.

Nanny was busy trying to put Charlotte to sleep by giving her a joy ride in her stroller around the halls when they came to take Shelby to surgery. Her IV was in, Johnny was on, and she was ready to go. They came out to talk to us about the surgery and suddenly Shelby said..."Did you just give me something in my IV?" They said yes. It was valium or some other drug that hit mom like a ton of bricks. She started laughing and smiling and telling the doctors how she was "ready to go to the party with this shit". They told her "oh yes, you are going to a party all right" and that was the last I heard or saw of my wife until the surgery was over. At least she left smiling. :)

Dad and Nanny took Charlotte down to the cafeteria to finally grab some lunch. Unfortunately they found out it was Hospital week which must be a big deal at the hospital since the cafeteria was closed. Figures, it was suposed to be open from 7am to 7pm and we picked the one day it was closed. However we were told to come back at 4pm for a free meal. Yeah. Instead Dad at lunch at Dunkin Donuts the only place open.

Nanny, Charlotte, and Dad decided to hit the Spa at the hospital while mom was in surgery. It sounded like a great idea, Nanny could get her haircut, dad could get a massage. Unfortunately the haircut person was not in so we scrapped that idea. Good thing since Charlotte was waking up from her nap and was not too happy.

We headed back to the waiting room. It was now almost 4pm time for Nanny to watch Dr. Phil. There was a 10 year old kid in there with his family and he had the television remote and the channel was set to some stupid cowboy show. Nanny and dad were not happy. He wasn't even watching it. Just as Nanny was about to go rip the remote out of his hands the family was called out of the room. Nanny grabbed the remote and finally took control of the television. She had a VERY big smile on her face, she now got to watch her show.

Charlotte this whole time was awesome. She had some fussy moments, but in general she was looking around at all the people gooing over her. And there were a LOT of people who were gooing over her.

After Dr. Phil was over Nanny started looking for outdated magazines to "borrow". I think she ended up with a People magazine from January 2004. And a few torn out pictures from one of the Gardening magazines. Dad, Nanny, and Charlotte then went down to the cafeteria to celebrate Hospital Week by having a free meal. Everyone else in the hospital wanted a free meal too. We didnt wait in line for too long but soon after getting in line dad realized he could not hold Charlotte and carry a meal tray. He had to put Charlotte back in her stroller and strap her in. One of the cafeteria workers tried to push past him nearly knocking Charlotte out of his arms as he was trying to strap her in. He swore a little at her and decided it wasn't worth making a big scene. Regardless she was an impatient bitch.

As soon as dad got his food the doctor called his cell phone and mom's surgery was done!!! Dad met with the doc and he showed him the pictures of the screws in her foot. He was quick to point out there were only two and he had to use washers with them (not sure why but he did). He said he could have used three but that two was going to stabilize her foot just fine. In 4 months or so he will take the screws out and once the incision heals she will be back to normal!

After another hour or so mom was out of recovery and Charlotte was able to finally see her. Her face lit up seeing mom. She was also amazed with the size of mom's cast on her foot. The doc had warned her it would be huge. It sure was.