We have a surgery date! UPDATE NP!

We just got our letter yesterday from the IWK (Children's hospital) about Ceilidh's next (and last) surgery. It will be Wednesday, May 27 at 1:00pm. We tried to get the time changed, but to do that, we would have to wait another month, and we decided to get it done and over with. We don't like the 1:00 time because Ceilidh is the type that will be worried about it. We don't want her stressed out all morning/afternoon until the surgery. Also, she can't eat after midnight (not that she will be up that late, LOL) and she is only allowed clear fluids up until 10:00AM. Ceilidh always eats as soon as she wakes up. She is usually very hungry in the morning. The poor girl will be starving by the time she will be allowed to eat (give or take supper time), and even then it can only be easy food (jello, applesauce, soup broth, etc....). Nothing that will actually fill her up any. After her last surgery, she ate quite a few single servings of jello, apple sauce and a bunch of crackers and she was still really hungry. All that was only after missing breakfast (surgery was in the morning last time), I can't begin to imagine how much she will eat after missing breakfast and lunch!

We decided to not go up to Halifax (4 1/2 hours away) until the day of the surgery, so we will be leaving very early in the morning. We figured this would be easier on her because she will be sleeping, watching DVDs, etc... of the no-eating time. This will also allow me to have 5 days with her to take care of her. I will have to work Monday and Tuesday, but I will be off the rest of the week (I don't work weekends for another 7 weeks when my training is over). I just have to give work these new dates. I gave them the dates for the 26-28. Hopefully they won't care (I can't see them caring tho).

She is already starting to worry about things. She is worried that a stitch will not dissolve like last time (man that was not fun!). She also doesn't like how it feels when they put the mask on her, and has been talking about that. I am sure there will be some more things coming up as the surgery draws nearer. She is looking forward for the trip to Halifax because she wants to make another bear at Build-A-Bear. She saved her birthday money, so she will be using that and we will pay for the rest (if she doesn't have enough) and be buying her an outfit for her new bear so she is excited for that.

It is so hard to not show the worry when talking to Ceilidh (I'm doing it tho since I don't want her to worry more then she already is) because I am already a bucket of nerves. I know everything will be fine, but still. I am hoping these next few weeks just go by slowly! I want the surgery to be done and over with, but I don't want the time to hurry and get here, KWIM?

I will of course be updating about this after the surgery, and I may come back to this thread periodically to vent. LOL.

Oh poor thing. I don't blame her for worrying. What kind of surgery is she having? I must have missed hearing about her other one.

I know exactly what you mean, nothing is ordinary or routine when it's your baby! Afternoon is hard on little kids, the poor thing. Keep us updated.

Vent away, Dawn! That sucks about the timing. Maybe you could get her up at 11:30 for a special midnight snack? Make it something filling, but also fun. That might also let her sleep later in the day. But if you think it would just wind her up it might not be worth it.

I hope things go really well this time.

BuzzNut, she had surgery to remove an extensive birthmark on her face. As I recall, it had some health consequences besides the cosmetic issues. Not that anyone would ever think that cutie wasn't pretty.

Karen is right. She had an hemangioma (type of birthmark that grows) on her cheek. It started to go away, but it stopped because it was all scar tissue (it bled a lot when she was a baby), so her dermatologist referred us to a plastic surgeon because she said it would need to be removed. He said it had to be removed regardless (I can't remember the exact reasons now, but it had something to do with the type and the fact that it was supposed to go away and didn't), and it was best to do it while she was young and not in school. This surgeon doesn't operate on these hemangiomas for cosmetic reasons at such a young age (he usually waits until the 8-10 year mark before he does anything), so we trusted his opinion on this. This is the second and final surgery she will have. The first surgery removed most of the birthmark, but to minimize scarring, they do it in parts. They have to remove the rest of the hemangioma (made up of a bunch of tiny blood vessels), and make it a better scar.

With these 2 surgeries, there is a higher risk that she will need a blood transfusion, since it is all kinds of tiny blood vessels. Luckily she didn't need one last time, so I am just praying it's the same this time. I'm sure it will be because most of it is gone now (it looks like a kiss on her cheek instead of a big red bump), but I don't know how much is still internal, so that still worries me.

I like the idea of waking her up at 11:30ish to give her something to eat. That might be an idea. I don't think it will wind her up much and if it does she is really good about just lying in bed and looking at her books until she falls asleep. Plus if she stays up a bit later, then that's fine. She'll just sleep longer on the drive (hopefully).

Thanks for listening and the support. It means so much to me!

Well things have changed. They called today and they have an opening for May 12 at 8:00AM. We are taking that time slot since the morning surgery will be so much easier on her. I am completely freaking out over this. When it was at the end of May, I was fine because it was so far away but now it is really close! I asked my trainer today at work about how hard it would be to make up 2 days in a row, and she said it would be hard, but for something like this she will help me to make sure I learn it. She also said that if worse comes to worse, a training class started a week after mine, so I could sit in with them if I needed to. That is more for if I need to take an extra day off or something incase Ceilidh doesn't rebound as well this time (I don't even want to think about that happening tho).

DH doesn't want me telling Ceilidh yet, but I think she needs to know since she is the type that needs to prepare.

I just realized, now I need to go shopping! I don't have anything that will easily slip over her head or that will button up! I can't have anything brushing over her face (of course).

I hope things go well for her, and you.
She is a dollbaby. I was thinking maybe tonsils is why I asked why kind of surgery. I bet she is giddy about it, since she knows from her last surgery.
A girl I work with now had to have birthmark removed when she was little, from her face. Her scar is kind of along the jaw line, I hadn't even noticed it until she was saying something about something else related to it, and she mentioned that she had a scar from it. She is 28 and alot of things have changed since then. They can do so much more now to eliminate scarring.

Wow. I'd be freaking out a bit, too. It's only two weeks closer, but for things like that a few weeks makes a big difference to how real it seems. Good luck, and keep us in the loop.

You explained it perfectly Karen! It is so real now. I don't cry in front of other people, and when I was talking to my trainer after work about this I started crying. I was mortified, but she said she is a mother as well, so she understands.

My sister and BIL (who live in Halifax) want to pick her up on Saturday and take her back to Halifax with them so she has more time up there. My in-laws are thinking of leaving Monday morning with her so she will be in Halifax earlier and can do stuff (swim mostly and probably shopping). I'm not sure how I think of her leaving for the weekend right before her surgery. I know she will have a blast, but I will probably be a wreck. The only thing that is keeping me together right now is I don't want Ceilidh to know I'm upset, scared, etc.. about the surgery. I'm sure DH will have no problems with Ceilidh going up with my sister and BIL because he actually asked his mother to take Ceilidh up on Sunday so she has even more time up there.

We haven't told Ceilidh about the surgery being closer. She freaked out a bit when we told her the original date, so we are postponing telling her about the new date. We will be telling her in the next few days. We just need to digest the news first ourselves.

I will be updating for sure!

I'd tell her a few days before, so she has time to prepare herself but isn't spending the next two weeks worrying her little self to death. I would have switched too, morning will be so much better for her. Good Luck to you

Don't be so worried, it's a good sign. Everything is going as you originally wanted it. Try to relax or you just increase her anxiety. Last surgery she had was an odd outcome, chances are it will go much smoother this time. Stay positive, and think how much it will calm her future self esteem to have this corrected now. Be strong for her.

I'm trying not to worry too much, but it is so hard. I know everything will go smoothly! She is a very brave girl. As much as I freak out about this, I never do it when she's awake or around. I'm completely normal as not to freak her out.

The more I think about this, the better it works out. My Grandmother's burial is May 30, and I wasn't going to take the kids to it, but I also didn't want to leave Ceilidh all day while I went to the burial (2 1/2 hours away) so I had decided not to go. Now I can go to it!

It sounds like things are lining up the way they are supposed to. I think things are going to go great!

How are you doing Dawn? How is Ceilidh handing it? Be sure to let us knwo how it goes, I'm thinking of you both.

Thanks Tara! I'm doing ok now. The day before and the day of will be a different story tho. Ceilidh has her moments. She is excited about the trip to Halifax, but is nervous about the surgery (of course). She is in the "play surgery" stage now. She has a few dolls that she'll pretend needs surgery, and she'll tell them that they can't go with their Mommy and Daddy.
She doesn't exactly know what surgery is, so the most she does is put her doll down and wait until the surgery is over. It breaks my heart, but it is her way of dealing with it. We took her out of preschool full time, and put her down to 2 days a week. There was no way I was paying 5 days a week for at least 2 weeks that she wouldn't be there for. Plus I'm worried about her face getting bumped once she does go back, and of course germs. I'm worried about it getting infected once she does go back to preschool (it will be bandaged and covered tho).

I will update probably when I get home, unless they have a computer with free internet. It costs a fortune to use the internet in your room.

Zaven had eye surgery when he was just about a year older than she is. He was fine up until about an hour before, then he started getting really scared. They gave him what my sister calls, "St. Joseph's valium for children" and he relaxed right away and played happily. But I was wishing I had some of that for me! It's very scary when it's your child. Much more so than when it's yourself.

Ceilidh did great last year. She played while we waited, then went with the nurse no problem. It was harder on us then her.

Today was very hard. It was her last day of preschool for about 2 weeks. Everyone wanted to give her extra hugs. The teachers all picked her up to give her bigs hugs. It was all I could do not to cry. They all will be thinking of her, and I promised them I would call them when we got back home (don't really want to call long distance on the cell phone) to let them know how she made out. She won't be going back to preschool fulltime anymore. We are putting her down to 2 days a week instead. I'm worried about her face getting bumped while at preschool, and of course being around the germs. I'm terrified it will get infected altho, I heard that facial incisions don't get infected often.

She is still coughing, so I'm really hoping it either goes away, or it's not bad enough to cancel the surgery once we get there (I would rather them cancel then take the risk of course). There are also stomach viruses going around work (why people can't stay home when they are puking is beyond me!!), so I'm praying that I don't catch it right now. I don't need Ceilidh getting a stomach virus right now. I'm pretty sure I'm safe. There was one person in my training class with the stomach flu, and that was on Tuesday. All my research said 1-2 days. Someone was throwing up at work today, but they weren't in my training class and in the bathroom (not sure if it was mens or womens). I made sure to wash my hands even longer then I normally do (which is long), plus purelled my hands when I got back to my desk. LOL. Yes, I'm a little (ok, a lot) paranoid about germs right now.

Here is hoping we all stay healthy until after the surgery!!

OK, I'm starting to pray for her again, and for you. I know it's just as hard on moms and dads as it is on the kids.

Thank you Karen. I know in my heart (and mind) that everything will be Ok, but I still can't help worrying. My nerves are much more worse this time. I have been feeling nauseous since about Tuesday! I know it is just my nerves (or I'm praying that is what it is) because when I don't think about it, I feel Ok (not great, but not like I'm going to be sick). When I start thinking about it, then I just feel horrible. I was talking to my sister on MSN for awhile, and that really helped. Even as I'm typing this, I'm feeling good. I would think that if I was sick, that wouldn't be the case. Plus it would be a very cruel joke to have me feel nauseous from nerves since Tuesday then for me to get an actual stomach virus now. That wouldn't even be funny what so ever.

I appreciate all the prayers and positive thoughts. Just knowing that there are so many people thinking of her helps. I know this isn't major surgery, but she's my baby girl and I can't help buy stress out a lot.

We are all thinking of you and your daughter. Stay strong, things will be fine, and she will feel so proud when it is all over.

I'm still thinking of you and praying, Dawn. Let us know how it went if you have the chance.

Tons of hugs to Ceilidh…

I posted an update earlier but it is not there. She did great. I'll update
More later since I am typing this with my sister's Iphone and it is difficult to type much. Thank you so much for the prayers.

Awesome!

That is GREAT Dawn!!!! We'll wait, go get a good nights sleep.