But let me begin at the beginning.
We came over early on Monday morning to fully capture a day full of fun before her Tuesday appointment. We went to the aquarium with our fellow cancer survivor, Lina, and her kickass mama. Eleanor and Lina got on like a house on fire. They ran around like banshees, pointing out exciting fish, monkeys, dinosaurs (crocodiles) and only pausing to watch the porpoise show.
Lina thought Penny was pretty cool too.
There is no way these girls remember each other from when they were 9 months old, and yet they had such an affinity for one another. It was fun to see. 
The outing was a huge success. She loved everything, especially those porpoises. 
Super Granny!
It certainly started our trip off on a high note. We reluctantly left our carpet picnic with the beluga whales and went to the hospital for our check in with the anesthesiologist and the nurses in surgical daycare. I think I must have been visibly anxious so we went over the plan for her a couple of times, and the doctor reassured me that we could hold a bed if we needed it. Eleanor was a champ throughout this and soon we were off to the hotel. We had hoped that we could go swimming, but everyone was hungry and tired, so we had dinner with my sister-in-law and relaxed. It was a little tricky to get Penelope to sleep in a hotel room with lots of action, so we pulled the curtain around her pack n' play and hoped for the best! Eleanor wasn't much better. I offered to share a bed with her, but I think Granny loved the snuggles :-)
We woke early Tuesday and we were all a bit under slept as we headed in to the hospital. We did a couple of pokes to check Eleanor's blood sugar level and they were both in a deliciously normal range, so we were good to go. I went with her to the operating room and she was definitely a little scared. I sat her on the bed and gave her a big hug. The nurses used this opportunity to hold her arm and they started her IV in one try. It was so fast. She didn't even cry - well, she didn't cry MORE than the whimpering she had been doing. I couldn't help but think of when we were admitted to VGH a year and a half ago, when they tried and tried to get an IV started but couldn't find a vein and finally had to sedate her. She has come so far! She got quite agitated before she lost consciousness and I was looking for the door the moment she was out. I hate it. She goes limp so fast I always think she is dead. I need a second to breathe and remember she is okay, and that we have her best interest at heart. My mum and I went to grab coffee and they came looking for us pretty soon afterwards. The procedure hadn't taken as long as expected and she was in recovery. They extracted her two top baby molars (I think they needed a *tiny* push. They were so dead-looking) and capped her bottom two baby molars. They cleaned up the rest and there were no complications, no issues.
Great!
And then I saw the faces of the nurses in the recovery room. They were frantically looking for me. Penny had *just* gone to sleep on my chest and a volunteer offered to take her. No, no. I have this. Eleanor was screaming and incoherent. Her lips were swollen from the local anesthetic. She was drooling blood and the sight of two metal teeth in her mouth made my emotions pitch. I quickly passed off my overtired baby for my overwrought one. As I held her, her cries became more intermittent though still quite intense. The anesthesiologist came by and offered a sedative. I thought long and hard. I know that coming out of an aesthetic is tough, but having your mouth frozen when you've never felt that sensation before...that's really tough! Usually eating a lot of food is how she pulls through the weird sensation, but because of that frozen mouth, she didn't want anything to eat. Still, I felt like she would calm down with a little time. Our nurse offered a DVD player, and sure enough, Elmo did the trick (Eleanor is currently obsessed with all things Sesame Street). Who needs Midazolam when you've got Elmo's World?
We took our time and kept offering juice. Eventually she took some from Jen (pictured above) because Jen is obviously the greatest person in the world. Eleanor started to feel better and ate a pot of yogurt. She threw it up pretty quickly, but her spirits were going up and up so we left the hospital around noon. We picked up some soft food for her to eat (pasta, pasta, pasta!) and I got lost on the way back to the hotel. No big deal, right? Except poor Eleanor was throwing up all over herself in the back if the car. Holy heartbreak. We cleaned her up when we got into the room and then Granny took her out for a walk in the stroller. By the time she got back, it was like the whole day had never happened. Girlfriend was on FIRE! You'd never have guessed what she had been through except for her likeness to a certain James Bond super villain. She loved all the attention from our guests and we were much relieved to see her back to normal. 
Bath time fun with everyone!
We had planned to stay in Vancouver that night because I had horrible visions of us getting into trouble on the ferry and the coast guard coming out to save us or helicopters flying in... But in the end we probably could have gone home that night. I'm glad we didn't. I'm even more glad that nothing went wrong! We had leisurely morning eating waffles and swimming in the hotel pool. It was a nice end to a pretty stressful couple of days. We are coming back over for her PET scan in 10 days (on her birthday, no less), so we are making the most of our "down" time, visiting Santa, going to ballet and playing with friends. If this scan comes back clear, we can safely say that she has been cancer-free for a whole year! Wouldn't that be a birthday/Christmas dream come true?
No comments:
Post a Comment