Meet Greta's hernia :) She has had it since she was born. We kept hoping it was going to go away on it's own (Harvey had one too but it was gone by the time he was 1). Well, it kept not going away and her pediatrician seemed to think it was something that would need repaired, so we ended up going to see a surgeon at Primary Children's out in Riverton. She was awesome. She thought that it probably would need to be repaired, but there wasn't a huge rush. We could do it now or any time in the next few years. Well, long story short, we ended up getting it done this year. Stuff with my insurance was going to be changing and there's a good change we'll need to get her tonsils out this year too, so we decided to just go for it. Her surgery was May 16. The older kids went to my friend Brooke's house and we headed to the hospital.
There were multiple phases of waiting and checking in and waiting and waiting. But Primary's has the system down! Every place we had to wait, there were pictures to color or toys to play with or shows to watch or books to read. It was awesome. Greta was just having a grand old time!
When we finally got to go back, we had a little eval by the nurse, got her wiped down and in her gown, and then the NP came in for a final evaluation. She had a bit of a runny nose for a few days before but was seeming fine. Of course, the day of surgery she got more of a cough, so there was some hesitancy in if we should proceed.
She loved getting pulled all around from one place to another in the wagon.
And the final waiting room - lots of toys and stuff to play with. We wandered up and down halls and she had a great time. Then we talked to the surgeon and the anesthesiologist. She was a little worried about the cough and said sometimes they can have some bronchospasm but she thought it was pretty low risk, but just had to tell us about it. We decided to still go forward.
This is the surgeon wheeling her down to the operating room. She got to take her blanket and doll. They really worked hard to limit the anxiety and fear and pain and everything. It was awesome. They gave her some gas before doing the IV. They said she was chatting in the OR and did awesome. No problems with the anesthesia or issues with her cough (although, 2 weeks later she still has a cough and I don't know what's going on with that??) It was so weird though - little tiny girl going into a big OR and having surgery. Tanner and I both just felt nervous. It was so nice when we got the news that she was done and it went perfectly.
She took quite awhile to wake up after, so we had to stay outside forever. It was pretty heartbreaking when we finally could go in once she started to come to. She was so sad and when she coughed it hurt her tummy and she'd make the saddest face. She got popsicles and crackers and juice (and Tylenol) and seemed to recover pretty well.
We were there for about 20 minutes making sure she was doing ok and they did all the stuff they needed to. She wanted to be pushed out in the wheelchair. Anything she wanted, she got! Such a trooper and awesome girl!
We did stop at Walmart to buy her a toy. She was passed out before we left the parking lot.
Ok. So, I was pretty sad after we scheduled surgery to realize that Greta's dance recital was the same night. Shouldn't have been such a huge deal, but she had been talking about it a lot and wanting to do another one and kept saying she was actually going to dance. She has been known to freeze up when people are watching her and not move at all. I figured it would be the same thing, but I really wanted her to be able to try. I figured we'd just have to deal with not going and that would be fine. I did ask her though, if she'd rather go to it and watch or stay home. She REALLY wanted to go. She was doing so good at home and was playing and happy. So, we decided to go. She wanted to wear her leotard. Harvey came with and Tanner stayed home with grumpy Lottie, because we assumed nothing was even going to happen. We didn't really invite anyone either because we weren't even sure we were going to go. She got her tutu and crown (modeled here by Harvey)...but didn't want to stay in the back with her class before dancing. She just wanted to watch.
So we watched the first few dances. I asked her if she wanted to and she kept saying no. And then she said she did want to. So we walked over to the other side of the stage and I put her on the stairs right as they were about to go up. She seemed a little hesitant but I told her I'd be right outside the curtain. She got up there and looked at me and I think she was about to cry. So I started walking up to get her but just as I was going up, something clicked. She saw me and Harvey and she smiled and DID HER WHOLE DANCE! She smiled and waved at me and I was crying and Harvey was ecstatic. She was SO proud of herself and when I went to get her I was just BURSTING! So was Harvey. It was so so so cute...he kept saying GOOD JOB, Greta!! And was patting her face so much that it almost got a little hard. It was such a special moment. I really was so so so proud of her. And then she asked when she got to do another recital :)
My recording is terrible. Trying to watch her not through the camera and cheer and keep the camera in the right place was apparently too much for me to handle.
They did go up at the end and all the little kids did a dance together. She wanted to go up for that too. She had a little more frozen moments but did most of it. I was a little nervous because there was a lot of kids running around that I didn't realize that was going to happen and was worried she would collide or fall and hurt herself. Luckily she didn't. She was perfection. Oh I love this girl!!!
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