Bailey's Hernia

So I noticed about a year ago (spring 2014) a protrusion in her right groin one night as she was getting ready for bed.  It was sporadic; I didn't see it every night.  In October 2014, when we were visiting Tennessee, she was dancing naked before bath and sticking her right hip out and I noticed the bulge look bigger.  I had Cristin look at it (she is/was an ER Nurse Practioner) and she thought it was a hernia.  We saw the pediatrician the end of November.  The surgeon January 7, and that takes us to today, February 5, 2015....SURGERY DAY!

Since we saw the surgeon the beginning of January, Bailey would often say her hernia hurt.  She made numerous trips to the Nurse's office.  One day she was there 3 times.  And she visited again a couple days later...when there was a substitute.....hmmm.  So we had her surgery scheduled in mid-March, just before spring break, but with the increase in pain, we moved it up.  She knew it was 2 weeks away.  Then 1 week away.  Then 5, 4, 3 etc. She was counting down the days and letting her teacher, and anyone that would listen, know it.  Even at the park, to one of Sydney's classmates, her brother, and a couple of random kids: "I'm having surgery tomorrow....Did anybody hear me?!"

The night before she had a second dinner at about 9:30pm since she couldn't eat after midnight.  In the last couple days leading up to the surgery, she would say, "I'm just so nervous!"  And the morning of, "I'm really really nervous!"  She slept well the night before.  She was up at 5am looking for Daisy, her new Schnauzer puppy that Nana had given her the night before.  She had fallen off her bed and was on the floor.  It took her a while to fall back asleep and my changing Sydney's sheets due to a potty accident (we forgot to change into pull-ups at bedtime!) didn't help.  She woke up at 8am and crawled in bed with me to cuddle.  She wasn't mentioning how hungry she was so I didn't mention breakfast.  Sydney got up and joined us.  After I showered, Bailey had a bath since she wouldn't be able to for a day or two after surgery.  She hung out and watched Strawberry Shortcake on Netflix while Sydney and I ate.  She sipped some 7-Up.  She really didn't complain too much about not being able to eat.  Grandma came over about 10, as she was going to hang out with Sydney all day.  Bailey and I left the house at 10:40am to be there at 11am to check-in.

We pulled up to St. Luke's and dropped the car with the valet.  We walked in and got a tag to get checked-in.  Bailey and I had just started coloring in her new My Little Pony book when she had to use the bathroom.  We went quickly so we wouldn't miss them calling our name.  We came back and continued coloring.  Bailey said, "Mom, I really like it when you color with me."  A couple of minutes later they found us and took us to a private workspace to check us in.  Bailey and I got wristbands with her name on it.  Hers had padding, mine didn't.  She had us go downstairs to the Surgery Waiting room and check in.  We sat down and a few minutes later a male MA took us back.  He weighed her (18kg) and measured her height.  We went into the pre-op waiting room where she put on a blue spaceship and rocket gown.  She hopped up on the bed and put the heated blanket on her.  She loved that.  The guy came back in and took her blood pressure, temperature, and put on a pulse oximeter on her finger.  Meanwhile, PBS was on in a TV in the corner and she got hooked on that.  Shortly after, Kristen, the Life Care Specialist came in and told Bailey what the plan was.  She brought in a mask that she got to decorate with stickers of her choosing.  She also got to choose a flavored chapstick to be rubbed onto the inside of the mask to make the "sleepy air" smell good.  Bailey knew this was happening because we had watched the video on-line about 7 times on the St. Luke's Children's Hospital website.  The next person to come in was Geri, a nurse.  She was great and explained everything to Bailey and the time-line to me and TJ.  It looked like they were just a few minutes behind.  Suddenly, there was a nurse at the sliding glass door that was making faces at Bailey.  She got a huge smile on her face and she recognized who it was.  It was Deida, Laine's Mom.  She is an OR nurse there and wanted to come and check on Bailey.  That was so sweet of her.  Then the Anesthesiologist came in, Dr. Richins, and she was a 30-something doctor with young kids of her own.  She was really nice and easy to listen to.  She talked about a caudal block for Bailey.  She spoke in easy terms to Bailey about what was going to happen with the mask and the "sleepy air" and when she would see Mom and Dad again.  She told Bailey some people think the sleepy air smells like fingernail polish.  She asked Bailey to try really hard to figure out what color of fingernail polish it was, and she would ask her after the surgery.  Finally, Dr. Reynolds came in at 1pm to sign some papers and ask if there were any questions.  She drew a mark on Bailey's right side so they would make sure it was the correct side to operate on.  A few minutes later, we said "see you soon, B!" and they wheeled her out of the room.  I was holding back tears - and Bailey never saw.  She was so brave and strong.  Duncan, the nurse anesthetist, as well as Deida and another nurse whisked her away and she did wonderfully.  The procedure would take 60-90 minutes.  Dr. Reynolds would fix the right side, then look with the scope on her left side to see if a hernia had started there (10-15% of the time there is).  If so, she would fix that as well.  TJ and I were walked to the waiting room.

TJ left to make a couple of phone calls and sign a chart.  Justin Grimm stopped by to see us.  He was operating with Roman at St. Luke's and knew we were going to be there.  He wanted to be sure that Bailey knew he was going to "peek in" on her from the OR window.  We chatted a few minutes then TJ and left one-by-one to go get some lunch.  It was 1:30.  Surgery started at 1:14pm.