it's 3:25 AM and Maggie and i just got home from the hospital. this has been a very long day.
last night Maggie didn't let Laura get much sleep (only between 1:00 and 3:00am) and Laura was scheduled to be at the hospital by 5:30am.
once we checked in and were in the pre-op waiting room the nurse told Laura that she didn't know why the hospital didn't a call last night, because Laura's surgery had been bumped to the second time slot. Laura had been scheduled for the 7:30 surgery time, but now we had to wait for one surgery before us.
close to 8:45 (just past the three hour mark for us at the hospital) Laura was taken to the room where she'd get started with the anesthesiologist and i was sent down to the surgery waiting room where I'd have to guess on Laura's status for the next few hours.
i spent my time watching the hands move on the clock and waiting for the waiting-room nurse to give me updates on Laura's condition. this was interspersed with phone calls to Laura's parents and my mom. the first calls consisted of me telling them that Laura's surgery hadn't even started even though it was close to the time that we had expected that Laura would be out of her surgery.
i saw Laura's surgeon talking to the family of the previous operation just after 9:30am, but i was a little surprised when the nurse told me at close to 10:00am that Laura probably wouldn't begin until 10:20, because of the time it was taking to prep the OR.
two more hours of watching the clock hands and the nurse finally told me that Laura would be on her way out and going to the recovery room soon. now i was just waiting for the surgeon to come and talk to me to let me know how things went.
just after 12:15 i got to speak to Dr. Garry. Laura's surgery went well and they have no reason to suspect that the cyst was anything but benign. Dr. Garry ended up making a midline incision to open Laura up. the cyst was larger than a nalgene bottle and probably closer in size to a regular loaf of bread. the cyst wasn't really attached to anything, so they think that it had just formed as a bubble in the layers of membranes around the mesentaries. the top part of the cyst was close to Laura's pancreas so they had to be careful with that part of the excision, but they don't think that it was actually attached to the pancreas or anything else for that matter.
i was up in Laura's room before 1:00 and my mom and then Laura all arrived within the next half an hour. Maggie was good for me during the whole operation. being up all night may have been the reason she slept so much for me. Maggie was also very good for my mom. she fed well from her bottle and kept quiet or slept well in my mother's arms. my mom stayed until nearly 10:00pm, which gave me a little time to take care of Laura and i even went home for a nap of almost a two-hours.
this surgery is a lot harder on Laura than the c-section. not only did Laura have to go through her dreaded IV, but she's got the pressure cuffs on her legs again (to prevent blot clots, but unfortunately anchoring her to the bed and making her feel that much more helpless and claustrophobic.) the pain medication is taking more out of Laura, and the incision and surgery were much more invasive. Laura's even been hooked up to oxygen because of the way the pain medication makes her breathing so shallow. i don't know how long the incision is, but the dressing runs essentially the full length of Laura's abdomen, from sternum to waistline.
Laura has been tired, itchy and sore, and feels rather helpless when it comes to taking care of Maggie. after my mom left, Maggie was less pleasant. we walked the halls, and then walked the halls some more. Maggie wouldn't cry until we'd get back to the room. Maggie threw a couple of fits that were stressing us all out. i was tying to change diapers, take care of Laura a little and get Maggie to calm down and i wasn't doing well at any of them. Laura was completely spent. Maggie's crying and being tied down to the bed with a big sore spot where Maggie would usually lay is hard on Laura.
Maggie gave Laura a few moments to hold her, but finally i just had to pack Maggie up and take her home. mom and baby both needed some sleep and Laura wasn't going to get any with Maggie there.
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