Boston Day Two Pre-Op

Today was Jake's pre-op day preparing for his big surgery tomorrow. We met Stacey for lunch and then off to the Children's hospital. Jake met with a few different people taking his various vitals and then informing us of the anesthesia plans. While in the lobby, the Wizard of Oz was playing for all of the kids in the waiting area which was nice as Toto is the same breed as our dog Reggie at home. One interesting observation..on a wall in the hallway they have drawings from children right before their surgeries. Underneath were explanations of what various things meant and the hospital uses these to assess the children's feelings before they have surgery. Interesting items what it means to have longer arms or no arms or using color red or a home which represents safety or a balloon which represents an escape. I found this to be really interesting as I read all of the assessments and what that revealed about the child's feelings.
After the surgery we walked around on Newbury St. which has a lot of different stores and the trees are lit up for the holidays. We finished off the long day with dinner and now we are back home. Tomorrow we have to report at 7am for his 8:30 surgery. They say it should take about 6 hours and then Jake will be in an ICU room as a precaution. The surgery will separate his thumb completely and then the rest of his hand will be split in two two finger configurations leaving his hand with two larger fingers and a thumb. The second surgery will release those twos into four fingers and a thumb. We are a nervous understandably and are in for a long night as Jake can't eat after 12 and can only have some clear liquids afterwards. This will be tough for our boy who will normally want to eat on that schedule around 5 so we'll be dealing with a cranky boy from 5-8:30. Think good thoughts as tomorrow will be a very long and scary day for us but this is a first step for Jake in helping him gain use of his hands.