Today's appointments

Today, another round of pre-operative meetings--this time with Neurosurgery and Anesthesia.

The neurosurgery ARNP met with us at 10am--and walked us through some of what is to go on tomorrow. What we know:

Check in at 6:45am

• Pre-exam will happen then where they will make certain that she didn't develop a cold overnight

• They will sedate her, put the IV in her for meds, give her a bladder catheter, cover her with warm blankets and shave the strip of her head ear to ear where the incision will be (apparently they will give us a little baggy with that hair in it)

• Her procedure will start at 7:30am

• Surgery duration has been scheduled for 8.5 hours

• A nurse will page us every one to two hours with updates

• Once the surgery is completed the surgeons with come meet with us, meanwhile Zoe will be taken for a CAT scan and then settled in the ICU where we will then be able to see her--probably around 5pm. She will have a drain coming out of her head. (I've seen pictures of other babies post op--it's not pretty)

Surgery is considered "Day 0". The swelling will steadily increase until about Day 4, when it begins to recede. The drain will be taken out generally on Day 2. Day 1 is when post op patients for this surgery leave ICU. For Zoe this should be Friday afternoon, if all goes well.

Only one of us (me) will be able to stay with Zoe overnight in the ICU; both of us will be able to stay with her once she is released to regular hospital care.

They expect her to be in the hospital for 5-6 days. They want to see that her swelling is receded enough for her to be able to open her eyes as well as tolerating food and liquids.

We got the tour--the joint is pretty well stocked. Yay Seattle Children's.

Yay us.

On the agenda for tomorrow:

For Zoe--

1. bilateral optic nerve decompression
2. craniotomy
3. craniectomy
4. cranial vault remodeling
   

For Jeff and Kellie

1. sitting
2. waiting
3. hoping
4. praying
5. Jeff: crossword puzzle
6. Kellie: blogging throughout the day

Here are a few pics taken of her tonight--her head will look quite different after tomorrow...





Off to finish packing--write to you tomorrow...