Pre-surgery Preparations

Tonight we are in the middle of our pre-surgery preparations in the Hillegass house.  As such, I thought we'd do something a little different and share some pics of how pre-surgery preparation goes.

First thing I do is take our pantry from this...

To this:

Why, you ask?  Following Gabriel's 7th surgery tomorrow, he will be on a very restricted diet.  For the first 2 weeks, he will not be allowed to chew anything.  Weeks 3 and 4 will be food that can be easily chewed (think mac & cheese).  Week 5 should be back to normal.

So now we have the largest amount of mashed potatoes, applesauce, pudding, yogurt, and ice cream.  We learned the hard way following the last surgery that if we don't hide the things he likes to eat, there is a tremendous amount of drama when we have to keep saying no.  Therefore, the pantry only contains Gabriel's diet approved foods.

And where did all the goodies go?

To the laundry room - of course!!  This is what the cabinet above my dryer looks like tonight.



In support of Gabriel's restrictive diet, I will be going on a 5-day juice detox starting Friday.  I figure I will not chew with him and be able to make extra juice to see if I can get some nutrients into him - since there is not much nutrition in a pudding cup.

Here's my new juicer.  I'm pretty excited!  Chad thinks I'm nuts.  

The last picture is the contents of our overnight bag for the hospital.  Luckily, we only live about 25 minutes from the hospital, so if we forget anything, it's not a long drive to come back.  

The contents of our bag include: a couple pairs of clothes (nothing that has to go over Gabriel's head since he will likely be swollen and sore), his blankie, his little furry friend, a puzzle for me, some puzzles for Gabriel, a Kindle for me (he's still using Chad's right now, so it's not packed yet), some chargers, some meds, and some diapers.  Yes, the hospital provides diapers and I suggest that if you are unfortunate enough to ever have a child in the hospital that you use their diapers and take any leftovers with you - because you WILL pay for them.  I have found, however, that sometimes the hospital is not prepared with diapers in Gabriel's size, so these are really just to be used in the event that happens again.

As for the rest of our preparations, we are just spending time with Gabriel and trying not to think about what happens in the morning.  Chad and I haven't slept well in the past week - which happens before every surgery.  It's amazing how it never gets any easier.  It worries me, and upsets me just as much now as it did when Gabriel was 7 weeks old going into his very first surgery.

At any rate - we will be up and heading to the hospital at 6:30 in the morning.  Surgery is scheduled for 9 am and should take approximately 3 hours.  Following surgery, we will be staying in the hospital for at least one night.  One very long night.  I can't wait until tomorrow is behind us and we are moving forward again.

So now...deep breath.

Hold...count to 10...

Exhale.

Ok.  

We're good.

Let's do this thing.