It all started on Tuesday. Knowing that Natalie’s surgery was the following day and that we had to be at the hospital in Atlanta at 6, I had the great idea to let Naty take a long nap. You see, Naty had decided to wake up EXTRA early on Tuesday morning so by noon, she was all tuckered out. Let me explain my way of thinking. If I let her sleep for an extended amount of time, she would go to sleep late and sleep on the way to the hospital. She couldn’t have anything to eat or drink past midnight and I didn’t want her waking up wanting milk.
By 11:45, Natalie was still up and going strong. She always goes to sleep with her milk so by this time I’m really regretting my initial decision. I’m lying in the bed dozing in and out and she’s wandering around the bedroom trying to find things to get into. Finally… she decides to give it up. By this time it’s 12 and I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do. Do I let her scream her head off until she falls asleep? Or do I disobey the Dr.’s orders let her have milk until she finally falls asleep? I had to be quick though…….I finally decided that my nerves could not handle the screaming. I’m sure the doctor won’t mind a mere 25 minutes. Right??
That morning went off without a hitch. Except for the fact that we’re always running late……Natalie slept most of the way there and when we arrived she woke up in a great mood. We walked up to the surgical floor, me, Doug, and my sister Misty. Our pastor was going to meet us there around 7:30. This week we didn’t have quite the number of bags like last week. Last week we had a HUGE bag of snacks, that I might add we didn’t consume, and everything we THOUGHT we might need. As we trudged through the double doors our stomach had flocks of butterflies flying around. I honestly felt like I was going to puke. Not a good feeling at all. We retrieved our normal sitting area and set up camp. Finally around 6:45 we got called back. Let’s just say Natalie was not going without a fight. Can I also add that by this time the waiting room was FULL of families ready to send their kids back for some type of surgery. As soon as Doug and I get up to take Naty back, she starts screaming. Let me try to give you some descriptive words so you can imagine how it was……..You know the movie “Dumb and Dumber”? Where they make “the most annoying sound in the world”? Yep, that’s my Naty boo. She had her implant on at this point and she knows how to make heads turn by making this sound. Boy, did she make the heads turn. I pick her up as best as I can (imagine a huge fish like a tuna that you are trying to carry in your arms). As I walk hastily towards the nurse I feel everyone’s eyes on us. All you hear is Natalie’s banshee cry. (I realized later that she had kicked her shoe off, something she likes to do).
The next hour was filled with nurses and doctors coming in to prod. Let me say that Naty.does.not.like.prodding. As soon as the surgeon walked through the door, Natalie got a terrified look on her face and tried to climb up my body. The surgeon is great I assure you but all Naty remembers is having to hold her down so he could look in her ears. She’s VERY smart like that. He comes in and marks the left side of her face with a huge Y, meaning yes for this side (insurance purposes) and leaves the room. Finally, the good stuff comes……….. joy juice. It only took about 10-15 minutes before she had the full effect. Natalie’s funny anyways, but mix it with the joy juice and she’s hilarious. The next 30 minutes were filled with laughter as we watched Naty sway to and fro and give us the biggest grins. But sadly that too had to come to an end.
It was finally time to take her back. We gave her a big kiss and said a final prayer that God would keep her safe and that his will be done and we sat her down on the bed. No matter how drugged she was, she was perfectly aware that she was about to leave her mommy and daddy. They started to wheel her down the hallway pretending that the bed was a train and I could see the corner of her mouth turned up. She was grinning. At that point I couldn’t really cry. I knew that she was in God’s hands and that whatever happened , happened.
After about an hour and a half of sitting in the waiting room we received our first call. They had just opened her up and were starting the surgery. First part down.
1 hour later we received the second phone call. The surgery was well under way and so far there hadn’t been any complications. I asked the nurse if Dr. Todd had come upon any inflammation and she informed me……..she didn’t know. Well that answer was comforting. I figured she would at least be able to tell me a yay or nay. Anyway………back to waiting.
Finally, the last phone call. The words that come out of her mouth were the best news ever. “The implant is in” she informed us. Yippee!!!! I couldn’t help but break out into a huge grin. I gave a big thumbs up to the rest of the gang which consisted of Doug, my sister Misty, and our wonderful pastor Larry. We were overjoyed.
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly. After a couple of hours, they moved her out of recovery into a regular room on the 4th floor. When we got up there, they had already got up there with Natalie. As I was leaning over the bed studying her beautiful face her eyes started to flutter. She must have noticed it was her mommy and she started to cry out. I patted her belly and started talking to her, trying to comfort her. She drifted back off to sleep and I started to look her over. She had a huge bandage over her left ear (which we were accustomed to) and she had diapers over her hands. Boxing gloves is what we called them. She must have woken up fighting. Typical Naty. Her face looked a little swollen and pale. She almost looked like a wax figurine. She had an IV in her hand and wires hooked up to her chest. But………she was OK.
Later that evening, she woke up long enough to eat her some jello and drink 2 cartons of apple juice and then fell back asleep. Of course, mommy had to sleep right next to her. Thank goodness this week it was a big bed and not a crib like Ella’s. We slept pretty soundless through the night and got woken up the next morning by the nurses coming in to check on her. I felt awful sorry for the nurses though, because if you’ve ever slept over night in a hospital, you don’t look that appealing the next morning. In fact, you look like total butt. Anyway, one of the dr.’s came in to take her bandage off and I held my breath. It looked just like the other ear had. Half her beautiful hair missing and a 6 inch scar. I didn’t worry too much and I drifted back off to sleep. After Natalie awoke, we ordered breakfast and waited for it to come. Naty kept rubbing her head trying to figure out why there was no hair so we decided to let her look in the mirror. When we walked up to it, I turned her head so that she could see why it felt so different. She cringed and whimpered as she touched her head. She was heartbroken. After a few minutes of studying herself, she looked at me and signed Ella. She knew that her head looked just like Ella’s. That action made tears pop into our eyes as we realized that she was going to be just fine.
We left that afternoon and headed home to our other wonderful bundles of joy………………….
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