Stevens Party, Your table is now ready...

March 11th- surgery day. We had to be in Ann Arbor at 6:45am for his 8:30 surgery. Brad drove there. Tim (the Father-in-Law) and myself were in the Jeep. At 5:20am our journey began.

I had originally planned to blog while Brad was in surgery to help pass that time but found that too hard emotionally.

At check in we were given a pager, kinda restaurant style looking. It lit up, vibrated, and words came up on a little screen. It worked anywhere in the hospital so we could go eat lunch with out missing any updates.

Shortly after checking our pager went off, our "table" was ready.... the operating table that is!  They called Brad and one family member back- me! They made him put his cute lil gown on, open in the back of course- woo hoo! lol  Oh and the hat, ya know the one to keep his hair out of the way... I think their logic is flawed!

The nurse was in asking the same questions over and over followed by the anesthesiologist, one of the surgeons, and yet another nurse. And yep all the same questions over and over. I know safety etc... but you must admit it gets old.

While the anesthesiologist was in the room the nurse was trying to get Brad's IV in. Apparently he has "tough skin" so the anesthesiologist had to step in and get it. I, none too fond of needles being poked into skin, turned my head then stupidly turned it back just to see a huge gush of blood pour out. The floor had to be cleaned, scrubs had to be changed...just a very pleasant view. Brad told the nurse that she softened the skin up for the anesthesiologist.

The surgeon came in and kinda explained the steps in which things would happen. Brad would be given a seditave, wheeled back, knocked out, and then they would start putting "ghetto braces" (his words not mine) on him. This consists of wires wrapped around each tooth with lil hooks for the wires or bands to be hooked on to keep Brad's jaws together for the 6 weeks needed for healing. He told us this part usually takes a long time, it is easy to do just tedious. After that was done the 1st incision will be made and all the jaw sawing, screwing, etc... will begin.

The whole time we are in pre-op Brad and I are both trying to hold back tears of fear and think positive. Listening to the barrage of what could go wrong and signing those last consent papers was scary. We went in knowing the risks but when they are laid out for you all over again minutes before you or your loved on is about to take them, just plain scary, no way around it. I wonder how many people jump ship in pre-op?

Well there was one risk I guess I was blissfully unaware of- the chance that his airway could swell too much and he would have to stay sedated over night until the swelling went down enough he could breath on his own. Um, yep not a fan of that choice!

Before we knew it, it was 8:30am,  time to say goodbye for now and watch him get wheeled away. I was scared and hoping he got to see us that night, not the next day. Please don't swell airway, pretty please!

I had my pager in hand just waiting for the updates. I was told I would get them every two hours starting when they made the first incision.

The last nurse informed me that the 5 hour surgery time given doesn't really start until the first incision. I'm glad she told me this or I would have really been panicking later on....