Day 1 of surgery...

Where to start...? This is Elise this morning after the nurse had given her a "calming" medicine. We actually drove to Omaha last night and stayed with Scott's brother (who lives about 10 minutes away from Children's Hospital) because the weather was so nasty. Thanks Mark & Missy for easing my mind! We arrived at the hospital this morning about 6:30 and were immediately whisked away for paperwork and lab tests! Apparently, they ordered new stuff and what Elise had done last week wasn't complete, so she had to have another poke that we weren't expecting and potty in a cup after having nothing to drink since 8pm the night before AND going before we came to the hospital. But, she was brave for the poke and was able to go potty.

Then we were introduced to a few different doctor's and nurse's. Children's does a real nice job of preparing the kids for what is going to happen. They have pictures of the room that they'll wake up in and what the docs look like with masks on and she got to feel an IV tube and talk about how it would be taped on her hand and how it provides good stuff for her. Her favorite part was picking out her flavored mask- she chose to go to sleep to Bubblegum :)

The worst part of the morning was when the doctor came in to tell us what was going to happen. She held back the tears as he described how she would have a tube coming out of her back (an epidural)and a tube out of the incision to drain the blood, and a tube for the catheter and that those things would help manage the pain that she would experience, except that the epidural wouldn't help the bladder spasms that she would have so she would have to have different meds for that. When the nurse came back in the room Elise was in my lap sobbing. After a couple of minutes of sweet talking and reassurances, the nurse had her back on the bed snuggled up watching a movie and life could again go on. She was almost asleep when they wheeled her away.

Then Scott and I waited...3 and half hours... when we could finally see her, she looked better than I thought she would. She wanted hugs and she was a little uncomfortable, but overall, she looked good. And, she wanted presents :)

The whole afternoon went pretty well. We finally figured out that she was having bladder spasms (she said the tube was poking her bone and she was afraid to go potty, so we initailly thought something was wrong with the catheter). The nurse ordered some more meds and she only had two more spasms since then that were painful. She was also able to sleep a couple of hours.

Scott left for Lincoln at about 6pm. She tried to sleep and listen to "Joseph", and then about 7:00 she started perking up. We got out some of the gifts that everyone had sent. Grandma Anderson's princess book was a big hit. She even let me go get some supper while she looked at it. Now she's watching a new movie about Jesus' birthday, while I'm letting everyone know how she's doing. Every once in a while she'll tell me "people are thinking about me" and I answer "they sure are and they're praying that you heal fast and get to go home soon!" When I look at my emails, or my facebook I'm reminded of the love of so many. Thanks for praying us through!