Poor Reese had a tough day yesterday. What we expected to be a short, eventful, but smooth day turned into a very long, eventful and tough day!

We arrived at our scheduled time at the hospital at 5:35am. Checked in, waited in the Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) for an hour or so, as expected, then was brought up to the Holding Room (pre-OR room). There, we met everyone we needed to in a mad scurrying about, and they put Reese's IV line in. Well, they tried. The poor kid was stuck SEVERAL times (each time preceded by a "numbing shot" that didn't appear to do a durned thing). The 20-year anesthesia vet said only twice was he unable to stick someone, and he called the main anesthesiologist to do it!! By this time, Reese's nerves were shot, though I thought he did GREAT keeping it together (better than I would have done!). The guy said Reese's skin was VERY tough and not only that, his veins were deep into the muscle! (Poor Reese!) The main guy got it on his first or second try (I don't remember which) and was amazed at how tough it was to get. But after that, they gave him a sedative to relax him (by this time he NEEDED it!) and he got very happy and relaxed. Lots of smiling. ;o)

So we waited for the surgeon. And waited. And waited. The RN came over and apologized for the wait but this surgeon is "never late!". I was getting a little worried about him, but a few minutes later we got the news: someone screwed up the schedule and he was across town at another surgical center and wasn't scheduled to see Reese until 1:00!!! It was 7:30am now!! UUUUGH!!! Reese was in la-la land, in his happy place, and so we had no choice but to wait until the sedative wore off and they sent us down to Recovery (due to the meds he'd had) for awhile, then back to ACC for many hours until they could bring us back up!! So he has this IV in a weird place in the crook of his arm, he's starving, and just wanting to get the show on the road.

ME TOO! We only have one car right now and Mark needed it to go to Orlando for an appointment that he needed to get to, no one could pick up Nikolai from the daycare (where he volunteers) on time, and... and... and... What a mess.

EVENTUALLY, after an eternity of waiting, he made it back up to the Holding Room, had his procedure, which went very well, and back to Recovery and down to the "sub" recovery room, and we finally got home around 6 or 7pm. I can't tell you how exhausted we both were!! Poor Reese hardly got any sleep (other than during the procedure, of course) and was JUST starting to sleep when they finally let us go home! I was glad for him to get into his own bed last night.

He's doing okay this morning, not too much pain, and is planning on resting most of the day. I am heading off to work (I initially took the day off, but decided against it, thinking that he would be fine and we need the money so badly that I needed to go in) and Mark will be here with him. His nose is really swollen, but he is the best patient, and doing everything he's supposed to. :o) (Does that surprise anyone??)

Sorry, no pictures! He would destroy me if I posted post-op pictures of him. ;op