Surgery . . . Again

Quite honestly, there's nothing that makes me more sad than seeing these pictures. I have no idea why I took these. *sigh* My sweet daughter in the waiting room of a surgeon. Oh, our poor little Dorothy. This'll be the second time in her life she has to go into surgery. The first was because she stuck a birdseed into her ear past the point of no return, . . . and this time it's a hernia. As you can tell from this picture, we're really playing it down for her. She feels like it's "old hat" because she's done it before. She's such a trooper!
Anyway, this morning was Halloween morning and, because I wanted to get Leia to school on time, I had her dress in her costume for her appointment with Dr. Von Allmen (a pediatric surgeon) at 8 AM. Well, she was the highlight of the day for many of the hospital staff! There were even people taking pictures (other than me, of course)! : )

When the surgeon came in, there was no doubt in his mind that it was an inguinal hernia. (The diagnosis didn't surprise me because Grandpa was so kind as to already diagnose it for us.) What did surprise me is that Dr. Von Allmen said that he worries more about this type of hernia (one that is fairly small, coming out and going back in all the time) than a hernia that is so large it stays out all the time. He said this type is much more likely to get "twisted" or "pinched" and that's when you have an emergency situation. He also said that, because Leia's a girl, he was concerned that one of the times one of her ovaries could slip out and get "twisted" or "pinched" as well. He also said that it would have to be regular, intravenous anaesthesia this time (because the operation lasts for longer than 15 minutes). Yet another surprising thing: he said that hernias in children were totally different than hernias in adults. While, with an adult, a hernia is a weakness in the abdominal wall, with a child it's that part of the abdominal wall never grew together in the first place. So, most likely, Leia Rose had this hernia already when she was growing inside of me. And supposedly, there's a high probability that she also has one on the other side, so Dr. Van Almond is going to do some laproscopy over to the other side just to be sure. Everyone assured me that kids just bounce right back from this surgery, . . . totally different from when an adult has it. I am happy to say, at least, that I am very confident in the surgeon himself. He seemed wonderful, and had a personal recommendation from Dr. Stephens at that. Meanwhile, Leia Rose was thrilled to get a little doggie from the UNC staff (who, in Leia's mind, quickly surpassed Annie in regards to being Toto).

Silly me, I didn't bring my calendar or my questions. (It's been a hectic October around here.) So we scheduled the surgery for November 19th, . . . we me not realizing that was Thanksgiving week when Artgarden has parent visitation and we would be traveling for the latter half, . . . so the date might be changed. I also need to ask about the recovery time for our little Leia Rose. Needless to say, I'm not looking forward to sitting there praying in that horrible waiting room after leaving my child in the company of a scalpel. No time passes slower.