Daddy and I held Darling in the pre-op room, passing her back and forth and smothering her with kisses. We didn't say anything to each other but the weight of our silence spoke volumes about what we were both going through. Angst about the procedure. The one percent mortality rate associated with this operation. Her recovery. The possibility that she may require additional medical attention down the road. The scenarios could've piled up in my head if it weren't for a young teenage girl who was wheeled into pre-op for spinal surgery. Her parents were very upbeat. They talked about everything but her surgery. They cracked jokes and winked at the nurses. Despite their best efforts she looked terrified. When her surgeon came in to greet her she let two alligator tears slide down her cheeks. "Am I going to wake up after this?" They all laughed like it was the silliest question they'd ever heard, dismissing the notion that anything could go wrong. I felt her fear. I asked myself the same question about Darling. But this little girl's courage helped me through those last silent minutes before they took Darling into the operating room. If she could face spinal surgery without breaking down, I could certainly hand over my sleeping beauty with a brave face.
Two cups of mocha and forty-five minutes later, Dr. Howard Rosenfeld, Darling's pediatric cardiologist, and Dr. Frank Hanley, world-renound pediatric cardiothoracic surgeon, came into the hospital cafeteria to confirm that the surgery went smoothly and all three holes in her heart had been stitched up. Hooray! Three cheers for Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland! High-fives to our fabulous medical team! It was such a relief. The wait was over and the outcome was everything we'd hoped for. No more broken heart. No more gasping breaths. And to think, had Darling been born in the early 1900s, her life expectancy would have been nine-years-old.
Her post-op recovery was almost as speedy as her surgery (see photos). Within hours the nurses removed her breathing tubes. Over night they removed her feeding tube. They even got her cradle cap under control before they released her into our care two days later. And that brave teenage girl that helped me through the dark hour before Darling's surgery? She was in the bed next to us, a full two inches taller now that she had a straight spine! Modern medicine is such a marvel.
